Who Is Tom Buchanan In The Great Gatsby
Tom Buchanan was my character of choice because of his interesting role as both a bystander in Jay Gatsby’s relentless pursuit for Daisy and his side story arc with Myrtle. His attitude towards minority groups in the 1920’s reflects the sense of superstition wealthy whites of the time could relate to due to the strong anti-African-American sentiment that they held. The openness of his flings with other women leaves much to be desired, which makes him an extravagant man to play: rich, frisky, and quite insufferable. The Segregation Era, from 1900-1939, proved to be an extremely trying time for African Americans, especially those who resisted Jim Crow laws and endured the shameless lack of American equality “guaranteed” to all its citizens. Tom Buchanan’s unabashed racism reflects the popular white opinion of the time on “people of color”. Tom’s fascination with a re-worded edition of the real life novel “The Rising Tide of Color” by Lothrop Stoddard (who later dies in 1950 with suspicion of association to Nazi Germany) causes him to preach that “ if we don't look out the white race will be —
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His very actions identified the morality and values of the 1% as he, and Daisy, showed that romantic infidelity goes both ways, and how easy it was to become a hypocrite. His marriage, which Gatsby points out later in the book, was under circumstance of wealth; Daisy, the unreliable character split between two men, believes it to be love. Tom’s obsession with uncovering Daisy’s past with Gatsby also shows his insecurity of losing Daisy. This possessive attitude could easily be explained away with his obligation to their marriage, but Tom had already been cheating with Myrtle. This breakaway from the idea of the perfect American family unearths the underlying patriarchal dominance of the 20s as Tom declares Daisy’s infidelity as unjust while evading the topic of his own
His very actions identified the morality and values of the 1% as he, and Daisy, showed that romantic infidelity goes both ways, and how easy it was to become a hypocrite. His marriage, which Gatsby points out later in the book, was under circumstance of wealth; Daisy, the unreliable character split between two men, believes it to be love. Tom’s obsession with uncovering Daisy’s past with Gatsby also shows his insecurity of losing Daisy. This possessive attitude could easily be explained away with his obligation to their marriage, but Tom had already been cheating with Myrtle. This breakaway from the idea of the perfect American family unearths the underlying patriarchal dominance of the 20s as Tom declares Daisy’s infidelity as unjust while evading the topic of his own