Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And Tom Hawkins

Oftentimes throughout literature, characters are symbols. Therefore, similar character traits reappear in different novels. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about the life of a wealthy outcast struggling with love in the iconic Jazz Age. In the book, one of the main characters, Tom Buchanan, is brutal, violent, and unfaithful. These same traits are evident in the character James “Jimmy” Hawkins from Practical Magic, a novel written by Alice Hoffman following two sisters lives and the events that alter their courses. Tom Buchanan and Jimmy Hawkins are similar in the ways of their vulgarity, cockiness, and need to escape responsibility, however, the pair differ in their background and their end results. Tom and Jimmy

Buchanan participates in an affair with a married woman, Myrtle Wilson. One day when many characters from the novel are returning from New York, Daisy and her companion are driving a car that had previously been driven by Tom Buchanan. Suddenly, a woman darts out from an auto shop towards the vehicle so rapidly she collides with the car. The woman is Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, she is under the impression that he was driving. Buchanan goes to Myrtle’s husband to tell him who owns the car, trying to deflect the attention from the affair to who murdered Wilson. Tom did not want Myrtle’s husband to be infuriated with him over the infidelity, therefore he tries to redirect the attention. Buchanan’s inability to accept responsibility of the affair leads to his similarity with Hawkins. Jimmy’s legal record has recently come to include the title of serial killer, “” It appears that he sold some poisonous plant matter to several college students which has been the cause of three deaths”” (Hoffman 222). Hawkins continues to run from the police after committing these crimes, as he knows these murders will finally put him into jail. Tom and Jimmy both cannot accept accountability for their actions, the pair only cares about their own

Tom is a wealthy, educated man, “His family were enormously wealthy—even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach” (Fitzgerald 6). He is incredibly proud of his upbringing and boasts quite frequently about the wealth he inherited. In the end of The Great Gatsby, Buchanan and his wife, Daisy, leave East Egg after Tom places the blame of Myrtle’s death on Jay Gatsby, Daisy’s companion. The couple live carefree and reckless, running to evade the aftermath of their decisions. Jimmy Hawkins’ result is entirely different from Buchanan’s. After many episodes of abuse and harassment, Gillian shows up with the “dead body of her latest boyfriend in her car. Her attempt to emulate the Aunts, and mix a dose of deadly nightshade into his food each night—to help him fall asleep before he became drunk and abusive—had apparently backfired. Instead of making her lover drowsy, she has unwittingly poisoned him” (Gioia). Many say that Hawkins received the punishment that he deserved for the misery he put Gillian through. The difference of the outcomes of the two men reveal that not all characters receive the ending that is