The 1980's

The 1980's

Woodrow Adams
English Comp & Literature
November 25, 2008

Tom Buchanan is Daisy’s husband and shows a great deal of jealousy over Gatsby and Gatsby’s mysterious wealth throughout the entire novel. Tom wants to know everything about Gatsby’s life and where he came from. Tom digs deep to try and find secrets and stories from Gatsby’s past. Tom is the villain of this novel and has Nazi-like theories of race. Nick knew Tom from Yale and describes him as “one of the most powerful ends that ever played football” there. Tom was from an “enormously wealthy” family. Tom brings a string of ponies from Lake Forest, Illinois, to the East. He and Daisy spend a year in France and “drifted here and there unrest fully wherever people played polo and were rich together, “before ending up in East Egg. Nick observes that Tom and Daisy belonged to a “secret society” that ruined, through their insensitivity and carelessness, other peoples’ lives. Tom lives a life of adultery and betrayal, which Daisy knew of and allowed. Tom is demeaning to George Wilson, his mistress’s husband, who owns a garage in the wasteland between New York and East Egg. He also mistreats his mistress Myrtle herself, whom he violently hits in front of Nick when she mentions Daisy’s name. The overall impression of this character is his physical power and brute strength. He is a fairly one-dimensional figure in this scene. Tom had his suspicious about Daisy and Gatsby having an affair and it all is revealed; this has Daisy outraged, which leads up to the car accident that kills Myrtle. Tom is indirectly responsible for Gatsby’s death because he uses his hatred and jealousy against Gatsby in making Wilson believe that Gatsby was the one who hit Myrtle and killed her in the car accident.

Jay Gatsby was a good example of accomplishing the “American Dream”. Gatsby’s parents were poor farmers, whom he never accepted as his parents. One day while near his army post he meets the most popular girl in Alabama...

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