Examples Of Empathy In The Great Gatsby

Isaac Adsit

Ms. Lawson

English 11

4/6/2023

Careless Tom The concept of empathy is taught to children all around the world at a young age directly and indirectly. Lots of people have empathy and it is very important in society. Empathy allows people to understand how different feelings and situations feel for different people. This is a skill that a lot of characters lack. The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates to the reader that people should have empathy towards others through Tom’s actions that fail to express empathy towards the other characters. Tom doesn’t have any empathy whenever he interacts with either of his lovers. The first time Nick went to Daisy’s for the first time in the book he said, “We all looked—the

‘I know you didn’t mean to but you DID do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man” (Fitzgerald 12). This demonstrates that when Tom hit Daisy that it was an accident but he still doesn’t understand the implications that this has. He shows no empathy towards her when she addresses him and makes her feel like what he did was acceptable. Nick later went to Tom’s apartment and “Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy’s name … ‘I’ll say it whenever I want to! … Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37). In this example, Tom and Myrtle are fighting. While neither of them has empathy towards the other it is clear that Tom has less. Tom has led her to believe that he will break up with Daisy and that she is something of the past. Even though it was not appropriate for Myrtle to

During the conversation, Nick realizes that “what [Tom] had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy” (Fitzgerald 179). In short, Tom felt that his actions that lead to the death of Gatsby were “entirely justified” in his mind. This comes as no surprise to Nick because Tom and Daisy are careless people that leave a wake whenever they are around. If he had just put himself into the shoes of Gatsby or Nick he would have had a different perspective on the situation. A normal person would have understood how Gatsby felt about Daisy and would have dealt with him differently. This situation shows the importance of understanding other people's views. The lack of understanding here leads to the death of someone and hurts many more. This is why Fitzgerald stresses the importance of empathy by considering other people's views. In this example, Tom just looks at what he thinks he knows and states, “He ran over Myrtle like you’d run over a dog and never even stopped his car” (Fitzgerald 178). Even though it is not the truth, he still has a harsh view of what happened and what could have gone through Gatsby’s head. It is not unheard of for someone of that power to just leave after making a mistake. While doing something like that is not a good show of character, Tom could have sought out more