How Is Tom Selfish In The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby focuses on Nick Carraway, a young man who travels to the east end of Long Island for a summer to work in the bond business.The book begins with a now older Nick reflecting on his experience in the East. He establishes at the outset that he does not judge others, he does not like to concern himself with the affairs of others, and he thoroughly dislikes most of the people he has met in the East. Over the course of his summer, Nick meets people like Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, for whom he professes a harsh distaste. For instance, he refers to them as “foul dust” (2), and says that, “‘They’re a rotten crowd’” (154). These characters all obsess over wealth, judge others, and are

For instance, Tom remarks about Jordan, “‘They oughtn’t to let her run around the country this way . . . her family.’” Tom also makes assumptions about Gatsby, stating that he is, “some big bootlegger” and that “he certainly must have strained himself to get this menagerie together” (107). Tom, a person that Nick despises, exhibits judging traits, often without any basis. Nick, upon learning that Tom is having an affair with another woman, makes a similar sort of assumption in stating that, “Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart” (20). Nick’s opinion about Tom reflects how harsh his judgment can be. Nick uses words like “egotism,” and “stale ideas” to describe the way Tom acts. Nick asserts these severe words without any knowledge of Tom’s true motivations. When Nick meets Gatsby for the first time, he mentions that, “Some time before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (48). The fact that Nick has an “impression” of Gatsby before Gatsby even introduces himself portrays Nick’s quick judgment of other people. An impression is an opinion that is often formed without evidence; Nick’s claims about Gatsby highlight his natural judging nature. Later in the book, Nick, although first intrigued by Gatsby, “talked with him and found . . . he had little to say. So, my first impression, that he was a person of undefined consequence, had gradually faded” (64). Nick not only had a “first impression” about Gatsby, but he also, upon speaking further with Gatsby, forms another judgment about him. Although Nick does not know much about Gatsby’s past, he still concludes that Gatsby is not a person of “undefined consequence.” When Nick realizes that Jordan has cheated in one of her golf matches,