Tom Buchanan Essay

417 Words2 Pages
In chapter one, Fitzgerald describes Tom Buchanan in various ways. Some more negative than positive. Tom lives in West Egg with his wife Daisy. He used to go to college with Nick Carraway, Daisy’s second cousin. Living in Eest Egg, portrays that he is old money. That is, he inherited all his fortunes from his parents. Usually the people who live in East Egg all inherited the money. Tom is also a very rich man it’s shown by this quotation “wealthy enough to do that” and it suggests extreme wealth. Tom Buchanan lives in a colorful mansion as described in the book “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion”. Specific diction such as “Georgian Colonial mansion” suggests that it is very old (inherited). Furthermore, Tom is being described as a masculine man. This is shown by this “standing with his legs apart” which suggests that he is trying to look masculine to others. Tom can also be labeled better than anyone, this is in the way he stands and he has a “supercilious manner”. In addition, he really likes to control people, for example “turning me around by one arm” implies the fact that he is physically controlling someone, in this case Nick Carraway. Tom is a racist. I know this because he says “the white race will be – will be utterly submerged” as well as “dominant race” which he says a bit after and it suggests that he is aggressive and eager to be in power. He is the type of guy that controls people both mentally and physically, he is shown to be aggressive and eager to be in power in this chapter and this is shown by the quote “dominant race, to watch out” he’s also being racist to this point. Tom really likes to show off, and in this chapter he just tries really hard to do it. Daisy also describes him as “great, big, hulking specimen of a” which suggests that he is very big and also looks very powerful. He easily gets insulted when Daisy uses the
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