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What Does Tom Buchanan Mean In The Great Gatsby

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"If you can dream it, you can do it" - Walt Disney. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his novel The Great Gatsby to disprove this quote. The characters Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan differ from each other from the fact that one flaunts his money to achieve his dream, while the other wants to be the wealthiest, with the items that a high ranking member of society would have. The Great Gatsby shows its readers that not every dream is achievable. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchanan for old money, and Gatsby for new money to create a narrative that old money people are violent and arrogant, and new money are hopeful dreamers. Tom Buchanan is used as a symbol of the east egg and how they haven't had to work for a dime and have advantages no one else has. …show more content…

Tom has had an enormous amount of money since college and has been able to do anything he wants with it, even. Though he hasn’t worked a single job in his life, he gets to act like he is better than everybody else. Although Tom’s money is legal, Jay Gatsby was tired of working to try to get rich, and took the illegal method of getting rich. Gatsby is known for throwing luxurious parties every Saturday, but nobody knew how or when he got this money, making him a mysterious man.Tom wanted to get to the bottom of where Gatsby got this money, so he did some research and found out, “He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong”(Fitzgerald 143). Gatsby was so stuck on getting back with Daisy that he would do anything to get a lot of money, so he was willing to do illegal

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It is made evident by how his house is described before he was formally introduced in person, as Fitzgerald wrote “Their house was even more elaborate than I expected… and Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch”(6). The majority of the paragraph explains the greatness of the house before barely mentioning that Tom is also there. As the author had disdain for those who were old money, he specifically ignorantly wrote Tom. His wife Daisy sarcastically states: ‘He dreads deep books with long words in them.’(13). This further establishes the notion that he represents the old money-rich white elite.

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Gatsby almost craved wealth and respect. He was so desperate that he became a bootlegger to make large amounts of money considering he wasn’t born into wealth but, he really wanted that lifestyle. Tom said, “… I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far from wrong.” (Fitzgerald 44) He said this because how does someone become that wealthy out of nowhere and isn’t “old money”.

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In Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, there are two characters by the names of Tom Buchanan and George Wilson. Throughout the book, these two particular characters seem to be very different from each other in nearly every way. However, it becomes clear as the story continues that they share some ideas and attitudes in common. Specifically, Tom and George were noteworthy in the way they felt about women, the methods by which they conveyed violence, and how they responded to their wives cheating on them.

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Differing economic and financial origins shape individuals and determine their lifestyle depending on how the individual decides to navigate opportunities. Born into a poor family, Gatsby works hard to climb the social ladder and make something of himself. However, despite his best efforts, Fitgerald determines he is never able to escape the stigma of his humble beginnings and ultimately pays for this pressure to contend with those around him, with his life. This is elucidated where Tom Buchanan expresses that “the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife.” depicting how despite his wealth and success, Gatsby is never truly accepted by the ‘elite’ society he wants to be a part of.

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The Great Gatsby is a book by Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1924. The book follows the narrator Nick, who starts neutral but slowly becomes strongly opinionated toward the corruption of the upper class he observes. One of the main characters of this corruption is Tom Buchanan. Tom is very opinionative, coming from old money, and resides in the respective peninsula, East Egg; because of his long history with vast amounts of money, Tom became subjective to the corruption following the trends of the upper class at the time. Tom Buchanan significantly impacts the lives of others by cheating on Daisy and blaming Gatsby for Myrtle's death, all due to his carelessness and disregard for the people around him.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

Commonly, illegally obtaining money is present while in search of fame. In correlation to Gatby’s hidden identity, he disguises illegal actions done to gain his money. In an attempt to amend his relationship with Daisy, Gatsby makes “a social mystery around his identity and involving himself in illegal dealings” (Hacht). To ultimately get his desired wealth, he goes to the extremes which includes criminal activities. Tom finds out about Gatsby’s illegal actions: ‘"I found out what your 'drug-stores' were."

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Tom Buchanan, the Great American Scoundrel In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan is the classic representation of an American scoundrel in the 1920 's. Tom 's role is of the wealthy, powerful, controlling, and cheating husband to Daisy Buchanan. Tom is of the upper class, and he is proud of his old money, of where he lives, and his white race. Fitzgerald describes Tom as a manipulator this being the worst of his qualities. Tom is a scoundrel, and no sliver of empathy can be given to Tom, due to his reckless behavior.

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Caleb Morris Mr. Ryan Dixon English 11 February 24, 2017 Tom Despicable In The Great Gatsby there are many characters you could have chosen for the most despicable. You could have chosen Nick because he is a passive person and does not truly care about people he just cares about their deepest sins. Daisy a woman who tricked a man that fell in love with her that she had the same feelings then when he got angry at her husband she stops having feelings. Jordan Baker and Gatsby are two people who use people and also situations to improve their odds in life.

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Corruption Through Tom Buchanan’s Love Interests in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald laced The Great Gatsby (1925) with his own social commentary on the decay of Jazz Age society due to white Americans. Fitzgerald knew of the growing divisions among America’s white community in the nineteen-twenties, and he utilized The Great Gatsby’s characters to show how the division will cause the end of the Jazz Age. Tom Buchanan, a arrogant man from old money, optimizes the views of eugenicists like Lothrop Stoddard, who believed in levels of whiteness within the white race; ultimately, Tom’s love interests provide the backbone for Fitzgerald’s distaste for the social stratification of the white community. Daisy Fay Buchanan, Tom’s picturesque wife, represents the peak of the whiteness spectrum, and Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s

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Tom Buchanan is the prime example of the evasion of

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

Every story has a character that stands out. Tom Buchanan is an example of a character stands out for the wrong reason. Nick Carraway describes him saying, “Two shining, arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body—he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top lacing and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body”(Fitzgerald,7).

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831 Words | 4 Pages

This shows how desperate Gatsby is to get the fortune, risking the danger of going to jail. Not to mention that he wants to be able to throw parties all the time, which costs money; Hoping that Daisy would just wander in someday. “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night,” went on Jordan, “but she never did” (P. 84) Since that never worked, he decided to change who he was and his

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582 Words | 3 Pages

“He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” In this paragraph Tom revealed Gatsby’s crime saying that Gatsby was doing illegal stuff, such as drugs and alcohol to make money. Gatsby is trying to become rich faster so he can be with Daisy because since her parents would rather have Daisy marry a rich man.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

Whenever asked the question on how Gatsby maked his money, he would always answer that he built up a few drugstores and when his parents died he inherited money. Gatsby was never telling the truth about this; and Tom eventually figured this out. Gatsby wanted to appear as old money to impress Daisy which is why he lied. However, the reason why Gatsby never told the truth about how he made his money was because he was making his money illegally. In chapter seven, Tom accuses Gatsby of being a bootlegger, “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (133).

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952 Words | 4 Pages

He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” (7.127) Gatsby earned his fortune through the illegal sale and distribution of liquor. Rumors of Gatsby’s being a bootlegger circulated with partygoers in chapter four while indications that Gatsby may be involved in criminal activity are suggested in chapter five.

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