Similarities Between Gatsby And Tom Buchanan

he American Dream is the ideal that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity, however they see fit. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is portrayed through Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Even though Gatsby and Mr. Buchanan are exceedingly different for many reasons, they both are trying to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream does not have a single, universal definition, but is instead the interpretation of success and prosperity by the individual hoping to achieve it. Gatsby is trying to achieve the American Dream through becoming rich, throwing parties, and trying to win back his longtime love, Daisy; whereas Mr. Buchanan is trying to achieve the American

Gatsby has an ideal in his head that he can get Daisy to erase the past five years in order for them to be together. “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby wants Daisy to tell Tom that she never loved him so they can get married in Louisville, as if it were five years in the past. Gatsby's definition of The American Dream centers around love and happiness, and he goes about attaining it in, arguably, a positive way. Tom Buchanan on the other hand uses his power and aggression in order to achieve his definition of the American

Buchanan both have Daisy in common. They love her, but in extraordinarily different ways. Gatsby loves Daisy for Daisy. He has spent the past five years trying to find ways to impress her and make her fall in love with him all over again. Mr. Buchanan loves Daisy because Old Money marries Old Money and he knows he can manipulate her. “‘Almost before I had grasped her meaning there was the flutter of a dress and the crunch of leather boots’” (15). Daisy and Tom then walk back into the room together, and Daisy cries out “‘it couldn’t be helped’” (15). Some believe she is saying this about Tom’s phone call with his