Why Is Tom Buchanan Lose In The Great Gatsby

Surpassing the American Dream The American Dream is something that a person can either find success or failure. The American Dream is open for interpretations. The American Dream Gatsby is chasing consist of; wealth, social acceptance, and the love of a desirable woman. Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, crafts a unique style of exploring the connection between Jay Gatsby and the American Dream. Tom Buchanan is man that had already gained the social status that Gatsby wanted to acquire in the novel. Mr. Gatsby desperately tries to befriend Tom Buchanan in order to gain social status and live the American Dream. Gatsby being a socially awkward person is inhibited in discovering the dream he is chasing. Finding love is another aspect of Mr. Gatsby’s dream that is never completed. His desire to marry Tom’s wife Daisy is an endless quest. Nick’s opinion of Gatsby is another factor that contributes to the unsuccessfulness of Gatsby. The American Dream is an artificial idea that cannot be achieved by Mr. Jay Gatsby because it is merely a product of the New World.
Mr.
Jay Gatsby always had the American Dream in his mind. Coming from a poor family with little wealth, Gatsby was not willing to accept this factor of his life. Mr. Gatsby’s only apparent aspect of success in the American Dream is the wealth he arrives at. The narrator states, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself…So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end”(Fitzgerald 98). This fantasy Jay Gatsby creates becomes reality. He is the one man in West Egg who throws huge parties and is able to serve alcohol during prohibition, which gives people the notion, that Mr. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who seems to be living the American
Dream. Tom Buchanan a man of West Egg seems to have everything that the American Dream is about. Tom has a lovely wife named Daisy that many men have chased after. He also is very wealthy and has many friends which give him status on the social totem pole in West Egg. Mr. Buchanan demonstrates to onlookers that Mr. Jay Gatsby is not up to the standards set in West Egg by himself and others who had subsided there long ago. While Tom is conversing with Gatsby he rudely states, “I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties. I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends—in the modern world” (Fitzgerald 130). This is directly pointing Gatsby out for trying to hard to make friends and be accepted in the social society of West Egg. Tom goes by rubbing in Gatsby face that he doesn’t need these big parties and all the unknown people at his house, in order to be living in a dream. Daisy Buchanan was a large portion of Gatsby’s detriment to the American Dream. Many times throughout the novel Daisy visits Gatsby and shows a large amount of affection toward him and his wealth. As the novel wound down, Daisy became caught between her previous love for Mr. Jay Gatsby and the man she is married to and has loved since, Tom Buchanan. The main characters all meet at this point in the novel and Daisy quotes to Gatsby, “I did love him once—but I loved you too… Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom” (Fitzgerald 132,133). This moment in time Daisy is indirectly denying Gatsby’s offer to run away together and complete Gatsby’s dream. Instead, Daisy stays faithful to her husband and the wealth, status, and completion to her customary living environment. Fitzgerald ends his novel rather unexpectedly and has Gatsby murdered by another man. Nick Carraway the only guy who actually knew the real story of Gatsby’s mysterious existence planned a funeral and all arrangements that went along with it. He tried his best recruiting friends and party goers of Gatsby’s but none seemed to exist or they rather not get involved in Gatsby’s life after death. Nick goes on to explain, “I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all” (Fitzgerald 165). Nick believes that Gatsby and he are fighting the rest of the world to be accepted in their new home of West Egg. Nick Carraway’s character appreciates the life he is living in West Egg as well as his background in the Middle West. Nick having a very opinionated nature stays “He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald 180), about Gatsby after his death. Expressing that Gatsby had already surpassed his dream illustrates that he was not successful in his dream of living the American Dream. The supporting characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, prohibit Gatsby from being able to achieve the American Dream. Tom denies Gatsby the social acceptance into West Egg society which he needs in order to become the American Dream. Daisy does not necessarily reject Gatsby’s love, but merely refuses to marry him because he is awkward in social situations and does not have the image she is willing to live with, which is another leading factor in Gatsby’s failure. No one showing up to Gatsby’s funeral and nick quoting he had already passed his dream does not qualify as American Dream material. These characters actions and decisions crumble Gatsby’s attempt to achieve the illustrious American Dream.