Shea Stuckey Schmit College English 05/08/23 Gatsby and Buchanan: Two sides of the same coin The book The Great Gatsby follows the story of a self-made wealthy man, Jay Gatsby, through the eyes of a middle class midwestern, Nick Carraway. Nick depicts Gatsby as a larger than life, mysterious, complex, and ultimately great man. Nick includes Gatsby’s 5 year long infatuation with Nick's cousin, Daisy Buchanan, while depicting Tom, Daisy’s husband, as a terrible, aggressive, uncaring man. While Nick's depiction of Tom is altogether not far off from the truth, Nick neglects and hides the similarities between Tom and Gatsby, while there are glaring differences between the two men, they are quite frankly two sides of the same coin. Tom Buchanan and …show more content…
Tom uses and abuses Myrtle to make himself happy and believes he can decide what Mrytle can or can not do and when. Tom always decides when he and Myrtle meet, even if it's inconvenient for her. Nick describes a moment where Tom decides he wants to spend time with Myrtle ``‘ I want to see you,’ Said Tom intently. ‘Get on the next train'’” (Fitzgerald 30) Tom gives Myrtle absolutely zero choice in whether or not she wants to go with him. Nick shows this even further when Tom hits Myrtle over her repeated use of Daisy’s name after Tom told Myrtle he couldn’t say Daisy's name. Nick shows this same trait in Gatsby by discussing Gatsby's use of Nick himself to arrange a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy. Gatbsy also uses Jordan to get closer to Daisy by having Jordan convince Nick to invite Daisy to his house. Both Tom and Gatsby believe they have the right to control Daisy however they want to. Nick describes the moment attempts to get Daisy to leave Tom, specifically the moment where both men are arguing about what Daisy wants, “‘Daisy’s leaving you.’ ‘Nonsense'’” (Fitzgerald 140). Both men seem to believe that they can decide what Daisy wants and use her to fulfill their dream however they want too. Nick frames this trait in Gatsby as romantic, Gatsby is in love with a woman and does whatever he must, makes friends with her friends, all to get back to her. Nick portrays this trait in Tom as controlling and dreadful, opposite of what it is in Gatsby despite both men having the same
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has many characters that are similar and difference in a number of ways. Fitzgerald gives a detail description of the characters in the story, but a reader’s interest level will peak when comparing the similarities and differences between Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Tom Buchanan is a rich man. Tom’s mansion is “elaborate” with “sun-dials, brick walks and burning gardens” (Fitzgerald 9) Tom is married to Daisy Buchanan and he was a football player.
Daisy Buchanan has two lovers, and doesn’t seem to care that they know each other! You may be wondering, “What is so appealing about them?” or “Are they any similar?” I was thinking the same thing! Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby at first glance seem to be nothing alike with their conflicting personalities, the way they portray themselves, and the types of love they show towards Daisy.
“It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other race will have control,” Tom (13/3) Do you ever think about how your little group could possibly be washed out by someone else? No? Me neither, but you know who feared it the most? Tom Buchanan. He panicked that another race, like a whole other group of people would kill his off.
How can two different people be so similar? How is it that two different people who love the same woman act so differently? Keep reading to find out. F Scott Fitzgerald creates similarities and differences for Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan about their love for Daisy Buchanan. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are both madly in love with Daisy Buchanan.
How can two people be so clearly different but similar at the same time? In the story The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this is shown between Tom Buchanan and George Wilson. Tom and George throughout the book are shown to be two very different characters on how they care for their wives and how they hold themselves. But in the story they are also shown how similarly easily they can both lose their temperaments and hurt people.
Saying that they’re on the same level, however, they are not the same kind of people. Tom Buchanan, from his college days as a football player to his current polo player, sports-life-wealth appears to be a consistent pattern in his life, he keeps moving around, but the places he moves are always where the rich or polo existed. Tom Buchanan's naturally idle class militant nature made him appear unusually violent and in a constant state of warlike readiness. This shaped his rough-and-tumble
Through Tom's superciliousness he has an affair with Myrtle. First, Tom said to Myrtle, “I want to see you,” Said Tom intently. “ Get on the next train.” “All right.” “ I’ll meet you by the news-stand
He had enough of this woman acting as she would disobey him, the authority. So he did what he knew would control her which was violence. Myrtle continued her affair with Tom after this because of her need to reach the level of “East Egg” wealth. This shows how Tom’s wealth gives him privileges that others who are not in his social class. In chapter 6 another example of Tom’s authority over women is shown: “‘By God, I may be old-fashioned in my ideas, but women run around too much these days to suit me.
The first thing one notices about Gatsby and Tom are their dissimilarities. Tom has grown up wealthy, while Gatsby was once poor and had to make his own fortune. Nevertheless, even though Gatsby hasn’t always lived in luxury, he acts more like one would expect a well-off man to than Tom. Tom is a rude, bully of a man that intimidates people to achieve what he wants. He isn’t the slightest bit interested in appearing courteous or polite, the only thing that matters to him is that everything goes his way.
As more is revealed about Gatsby in the Plaza it looks less and less likely that Daisy is going to leave Tom for Gatsby. Daisy isn 't able to convince Tom or anyone else at the Plaza that she loves Gatsby. So much so that Tom even insists that Gatsby ride home with Daisy. After Myrtle’s death Gatsby still hoped for Daisy to come back for him, it never happens and Daisy and Tom end up running away from the mess they made in New York. Myrtle ended up cheating on Wilson because Tom had the money that Wilson lacked, she felt like she deserved more than she was getting.
“Some men have a necessity to be mean, as if they were exercising a faculty which they had to partially neglect since early childhood.” –F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tom Buchanan and George Wilson are visibly different, but are alike in many ways as well. Including their attitude towards women, their ways of showing violence, and their reaction to being cuckolded. Although they are from different social classes they can still relate to each other.
Another example of Gatsby's insecurities is that he is afraid to be abandoned and alone and that's why he likes Nick so much because he doesn't want to have no one. This is the same reason that Gatsby hangs on to a string of hope that Daisy might come back to him. While Gatsbys is afraid of being alone, Tom's insecure about his status and how people see his wealth. Tom and Gatsby are both insecure.
To begin, throughout the two varying novels Tom Buchanan, from The Great Gatsby, and Baba, from the Kite Runner, share many similarities. In the Great Gatsby, Tom Buchanan is depicted as a man full of wealth and power. As Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, states, he is a “sturdy, straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner” with “two shining, arrogant eyes” and “a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body” (Fitzgerald, 7). As Nick meticulously describes Tom, his powerful and indomitable image is presented considerably. From the way Nick describes his muscular build, rigid manner and superior eyes, it is evident Tom Buchanan demonstrates a greater status and importance to those among him.
There were many similarities and differences between characters in both the book The Great Gatsby and The Great Gatsby movies; however, the most distinct, evident comparison and contrast were between Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Jay Gatsby, or James Gatz, finished his life as a well-known, eccentric, and extremely wealthy man. Not much was known about Jay Gatsby to most, but everyone knew that he always hosted wild parties at his gothic, luxurious mansion. Tom Buchanan was also a very rich many, but his personality was drastically different than Gatsby’s. Tom was not very outgoing and was recognized as a brute and a bully by most people, so he really did not have a lot of close friends.
Fitzgerald, in the novel of The Great Gatsby, is trying to tell the readers that all men are the same rich, or not. In the novel, Nick introduces Tom Buchanan to us as the rich guy with a beautiful family and a great life. Then, he introduces George Wilson as the poor guy with a wife who does not want him and is not living the best life. Two different men with two different classes, lives, and upbringings. Even though they are two different men with completely different everything, if you strip them of it all, you will see that both men are alike even with all their differences.