How Is Tom Buchanan Selfish

From the outside, Tom Buchanan seems perfect and has everything he could ever want: lots of money that he never had to work for, a nice, big house, a beautiful wife and daughter, and "fame" from his college football days. However, none of that makes him a good person or gives him a life he is satisfied with. He cheats on his wife, abuses his mistress, is racist, has a superiority complex, and was indirectly responsible for Gatsby’s murder.

Tom will never learn from his actions or feel remorse for the part he played in Gatsby’s murder because he has never had to take responsibility before. He has everything that so many people would kill for and he is ungrateful for it. F. Scott Fitzgerald created the character of Tom

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He is openly racist with his view on the “superior race” and all other races. Just a few pages into the novel Tom admits his views to Nickwhen he is at their house. Tom says, “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged” (Fitzgerald 13). He also says, “It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (Fitzgerald 13). He genuinely believes that the white race is superior to all other races and does not have a problem sharing his opinions. This gives insight on his character because it is evident that he never thinks he is wrong, adding to his superiority complex. Tom specifically thinks he’s superior to those with less money or new money. He is constantly looking down on the people from West Egg because he thinks they are too flashy. He specifically hates Gatsby for the parties he throws and how he got his money. When Gatsby tells Tom that Daisy is leaving him, he flips out and starts yelling. “‘She’s not leaving me!’ Tom’s words suddenly leaned down over Gatsby. ‘Certainly not for a common swindler who’d have to steal the ring he put on his finger” (Fitzgerald 133). He thinks he is better than Gatsby because he is from old money and Gatsby is from new money. However, Tom is on the same level as Gatsby because he cheated on Daisy and never worked for his money, whereas Gatsby is having an affair with Daisy and created his own wealth. Tom’s ways of looking at

He told George Wilson that Gatsby owned the car that killed Myrtle. He knew that George would kill Gatsby but he did not care. Gatsby was not even the one driving the car when Myrtle was killed. In fact, Tom was the reason that Myrtle went running into the road. “A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting” (Fitzgerald 137). She was waving her hands around trying to flag down the car because she saw that Tom was in that car earlier in the day. However, the car was really Gatsby’s and they had just switched cars for the ride there. Myrtle was trying to get Tom to pull over for her and she did not even realize that Tom was not in the car. Tom even tried to defend his reason for telling George by saying, “He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car” (Fitzgerald 178). He could have distracted George enough and called the police, saying that George was out of control and was going to murder someone. However, the real reason for telling George was because he did not like Gatsby. He even admits that he does not feel guilty or care that he was responsible for Gatsby’s death. He asks Nick, “What if I did tell him? That fellow had it coming to him” (Fitzgerald 178). Was the reason he had it coming to him really because of Myrtle or was it because Gatsby was about to steal his wife away? Tom hated Gatsby so much, he would’ve told George that Gatsby killed Myrtle even if George did not threaten