The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan Character Analysis

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Given Tom Buchanan’s bigoted nature, it is no surprise that he does not see Daisy as a person, but as a quiet symbol of nuclear family and marital bliss. What is surprising is the power this symbol gives Daisy over him, and how quickly she loses it when her affair with Gatsby is revealed. Tom tries desperately to keep his wife and mistress apart, to the point where he hits poor Mrs. Wilson for daring to say, “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy!” (37) His traditional family dream and his erotic power play, his darling wife and his audacious mistress, symbolize two very different sides of him, and their changing makes Tom feel “the hot whips of panic” (125). Before he discovers Daisy is not as traditional as she seems, Tom, however begrudgingly, tends to do