Tom Buchanan Character Analysis Essay

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is filled to the brim with eccentric characters that boggle the reader’s mind. One of the notable characters introduced in chapter one is Tom Buchanan. Tom is married to the narrator’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan, a dainty and submissive woman; exceedingly different from Tom. He is a “brute of a man” (Fitzgerald 12) who has to be in control of everyone he comes in contact with, even his wife calls him hulky. Tom’s main trait is his desire for power and dominance of others, he fills his life with people he feels is in a lower class than him; Nick Carraway, the narrator, is no exception. Fitzgerald expresses Tom’s dominance through his money, appearance, dialogue, and “people preferences”.
Tom Buchanan’s …show more content…
Tom had known Nick in college because they belonged to the same senior society, however turned up in completely diverse situations. When he greets Nick he is wearing a supercilious expression with his legs far apart, in a dominating stance (Fitzgerald 7). Fitzgerald correspondingly goes on to describe Tom’s physique as “capable of enormous leverage” and “cruel” (7). By adding the word “cruel”, to Tom’s appearance can give one the idea that he is abusive, which is not surprising with the way he handles others. When Nick is walking up to Tom’s manor, Tom forcibly turns Nick around countless times to show him the house (Fitzgerald 7). This act on Tom’s part displays a mix between a peacock and a lion; the peacock aspect is him flaunting his extravagant manor and the lion is the dominance he has over Nick; and possibly others close to him. Tom also formulates a sense of cockiness towards Nick, while showing him the house, when he says, “…just because I’m stronger and more of a man than you are” (Fitzgerald 7). This obviously signifies the dominance Tom has over Nick and further establishes the idea that Tom centers himself around people in a lower class than he
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