Tom Buchanan : Fragile Masculinity at Its Finest
Tom Buchanan is the most pathetic character in The Great Gatsby. His presented powerful, masculine attitude is, in reality, a cover up for his insecurities, and if all of his wealth and power is taken away, he is left hollow and forlorn. In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, a fictional novel detailing the roaring 20’s and the plights of the upper class. Tom Buchanan is a prominent figure in this upper class, with large amounts of wealth, a beautiful wife, and a healthy baby girl. However, he also has a well known affair with another woman, is often temperamental and violent, and rarely has to face the consequences of his actions. When Tom’s mistress is killed in a car accident,
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He has inherited a massive sum of money from his family, and has lived a comfortable and lavish life. It has lent him a great amount of status and infamy among the upper class, best shown in the opening pages of The Great Gatsby, where the narrator, Nick, says, “His family were enormously wealthy⎯even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach⎯but now he’d left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away; for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that” (Fitzgerald 6). Tom’s actions make it clear that he has become desensitized to the scope of his wealth. It seems that he is, in some way, aware of this, and instead of appreciating what he has, Tom has decided to use this ignorance as a way to flaunt his money. He will throw cash around and spend it on things he doesn’t need, all the while making sure his carelessness is on full display. He is fully aware of the status he gains from these stunts, and he revels in it. To summarize, Tom’s grandiose and careless lifestyle is intended to inflate his own ego and impress the people he interacts with in order to ascend the social