The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan Quotes

Fitzgerald highlights Tom Buchanan’s controlling yet restless character through the visual imagery and metaphor associates with the Buchanan household and Tom himself. The way Tom’s eyes “flash[ed] about restlessly” as he looked over his estate implies that Tom longs for change despite his fear of the unknown (14). Tom’s fear of new ideas and people is developed throughout the novel through his contempt of Gatsby and racist worldview, here it takes the form of a nautical motif. Fitzgerald’s comparison between the shadow cast on the carpet with the “shadow wind [casts] on the sea” (24). “Wind” is a symbol for new ideas and discoveries, as wind is the primary driving force behind sailing vessels, symbolizing the way in which change pushes society in different directions (24). Moreover, the reference to the sea reveals Tom’s fear of what may

Furthermore, the way “the wind [dies] out” and Daisy and Jordan “balloon… to the floor” reveals how attempting to block out change makes an area or people stagnate and become rooted in outdated values (30). Despite Tom’s best efforts to keep new values and people of different socioeconomic standing out of his life, he does not succeed, as shown in the introduction of Myrtle, his mistress. Fitzgerald foreshadows Myrtle’s introduction in the way the grass “seemed to grow a little way into the house” the grass is emblematic of Myrtle’s character as an outsider to the Buchanan home but still has somehow “grow[n]… into the house” (22). Myrtle’s character outlines the basis for Tom’s psyche; despite Tom’s desire to stick to his own rigid beliefs, he still gives in and changes with the times, creating a kind of cognitive dissonance in himself that manifests itself in aggression and dissatisfaction in