Purpose of Tom Buchanan in the Great Gatsby
The Purpose of Tom Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby”
Tom Buchanan is a football player from Chicago whose family is extremely rich, he studied at Yale with Nick, and he is the husband of Daisy (Gatsby’s lover). He came to New York, and lives in East egg which is the place for the “Old rich”. Tom Buchanan is a very arrogant person with no real moral values, and a hypocritical bully. He is incapable of feeling guilty or emotional and he represents racism in this novel. In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan’s purpose is to serve as foil to the characters Gatsby and George Wilson.
A foil is a character who contrasts with another character; it is used to make the traits of the other character emphasized. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are completely opposite characters, and are developed as foil characters based on their characteristics, how they got wealthy, their goals in life, and their love they have for Daisy. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, Tom is portrayed as a very brutal and cruel person. He is arrogant and extremely racist and treats women as secondary beings. He shows less respect towards women; He even sees his wife Daisy as an unimportant and less superior person than him. “Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with rather hard mouth and supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward… It was a body of enormous leverage – a cruel body” (Fitzgerald pg. 7), this quote gives a detailed description on how Tom Buchanan is portrayed in this novel. Meanwhile, Gatsby is very calm and gentle character who shows and treats every person with the same respect because he knew what it was like being in the low class or poor. He treats daisy like a precious diamond, he would do anything to get her and give up anything for her. Another reason why Gatsby and Tom are completely opposite characters is because how they got
Tom Buchanan is a football player from Chicago whose family is extremely rich, he studied at Yale with Nick, and he is the husband of Daisy (Gatsby’s lover). He came to New York, and lives in East egg which is the place for the “Old rich”. Tom Buchanan is a very arrogant person with no real moral values, and a hypocritical bully. He is incapable of feeling guilty or emotional and he represents racism in this novel. In the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Buchanan’s purpose is to serve as foil to the characters Gatsby and George Wilson.
A foil is a character who contrasts with another character; it is used to make the traits of the other character emphasized. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are completely opposite characters, and are developed as foil characters based on their characteristics, how they got wealthy, their goals in life, and their love they have for Daisy. In the novel “The Great Gatsby”, Tom is portrayed as a very brutal and cruel person. He is arrogant and extremely racist and treats women as secondary beings. He shows less respect towards women; He even sees his wife Daisy as an unimportant and less superior person than him. “Now he was a sturdy straw-haired man of thirty with rather hard mouth and supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always leaning aggressively forward… It was a body of enormous leverage – a cruel body” (Fitzgerald pg. 7), this quote gives a detailed description on how Tom Buchanan is portrayed in this novel. Meanwhile, Gatsby is very calm and gentle character who shows and treats every person with the same respect because he knew what it was like being in the low class or poor. He treats daisy like a precious diamond, he would do anything to get her and give up anything for her. Another reason why Gatsby and Tom are completely opposite characters is because how they got