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The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan Power Quotes

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In The Great Gatsby we meet Tom Buchanan early on in the story in chapter one. His character is a stereotypical wealthy man who inherited his wealth without lifting a finger and learned to use his money to his advantage. The essay “Deceitful Traces of Power: An Analysis of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby” by Alberto Lena makes great points about the different types of money and the power Tom specifically holds with his money because of his physical and mental appearance as well as the class he was born in. One argument in Alberto Lena’s essay is that how Nick describes Tom both physically and mentally has a deeper meaning to it. He argues that Nick’s deep description of Tom’s mind and physical appearance are connected in the way that his muscles …show more content…

This is such a great point as Tom is a very impulsive character and Tom uses his money to hide his immoral and other views. “Buchanan uses the defense of law and order to hide his dedecance and, implicity, his amorality”(Lena 30). As Buchanan is very much a man of racist and classist beliefs this is a very true statement. He uses his class as a petastule and he is standing above everyone else. In The Great Gatsby there is a distinction between old money which was gotten by inheritance and new money which is like a self made man. The two men who take these titles are Tom for the old money and Gatsby himself for the new money. It also shows how the old money people feel about the new money people. This is seen in the interaction with Tom and Gatsby when Tom is talking to Nick with his two friends in Mr.Sloane and a mystery girl. In this Mr.Sloane and Tom made it very clear how he did not want Gatsby to go with them. Stating things like “Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?” and even at the end of it leaving

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