Gatsby Essay: Tom and Gatsby

Elegant parties, endless supply of alcohol and food, numerous people, huge mansion, and loud music are all examples of common occurrences at the Gatsby mansion. All of this was to lure in one beautiful girl. That girl was Daisy. However, Daisy was occupied by her own rich husband, Tom. This only left Gatsby wishing he could have Daisy. Soon, Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom all cross paths. Although different in many ways, it turns out that Tom and Gatsby share many of the same traits. Over the course of events in The Great Gatsby, Tom and Gatsby show many traits that are similar and many traits that are different. In the end, Gatsby learns his lesson about the emptiness of pursuing happiness through wealth.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, there are lies, secrets and indiscretion. Tom and Gatsby both share these traits. Both men lie, hold onto secrets and have indiscretion about their lives and what they do for work. “Tom’s got some woman in New York” (15). Tom shows his indiscretion through his secrets and lies about his affair. The other characters are aware of Tom’s affair, but he still manages to lie to them and go behind Daisy’s back to see his mistress. Tom also says “We’re getting off, I want you to meet my girl” (24). Tom’s “girl”, as referred to in this quote, is actually his mistress. This example again shows Tom’s indiscretion, secrets, and lies. Gatsby is also secretive. Gatsby’s secrets are mostly about his work. “I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were…. He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong” (133). At this point in the story, Tom figures out what Gatsby’s profession is and how he got all of his money. This example shows Gatsby’s indiscretion. Gatsby’s work also shows how he is secretive and tells lies to keep his profession a secret. Both Tom and Gatsby have their secrets. Both men show their behaviors of indiscretion and lying. In the end, this type of behavior hurts both of the men and impacts their relationships with Daisy and other characters as well.
During the story, there are many instances in which Tom can be very racist, while Gatsby shows no racism. “Well, it’s a fine book, and everybody ought to read it. The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be- will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proven” (13). Tom is very racist, as seen by this quote. Tom is very naïve and very ignorant and this can be seen through his racism. The other characters disagree with Tom but don’t say much to stop him. They let Tom ramble on. Tom goes on to say, “This fellow has worked out the whole thing. It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things” (13). Again, Tom shows a great amount of racism. Gatsby, on the other hand, shows no instances of racism in the story. The story only portrays Tom as the racist. Gatsby makes no racist comments or remarks. Gatsby also lets all kinds of different people with different backgrounds into his parties. He shows no exclusion when it comes to those parties. One last example of Tom’s racism is when he says, “Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions, and next they’ll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white” (130). This is the last example of Tom’s racism. This example comes later in the book, so this shows that he never learned from his previous comments and still holds true to his belief about white supremacy. Gatsby and Tom differ in this trait as Gatsby welcomes all backgrounds and Tom believes in racism.
Tom and Gatsby both love Daisy. This causes many issues and a lot of drama. However, it shows that both men are passionate for their lover. Gatsby’s passion and love for Daisy can be seen as he argues with Tom saying, “Your wife doesn’t love you. She’s never loved you. She loves me” (130). Gatsby is trying to convince himself, Daisy, and Tom that Daisy never loved Tom. Gatsby wants to be the only one that Daisy loves and Gatsby wants Daisy all to himself. He loves her and has an enormous amount of passion for her. Tom shows his passion and love for Daisy as he argues with Gatsby that Daisy does love him. Tom says:
You’re crazy! I can’t speak about what happened five years ago because I didn’t know Daisy then- and I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door. But all the rest of that’s a God damned lie. Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now…. And what’s more I love Daisy too. (131)
Tom proves his point and he shows that he loves Daisy. Tom shows his passion for Daisy, and states why she should stay with him. Tom goes on to say a little bit later, “I’m going to take better care of you from now on” (133). Tom knows he has made mistakes and his passion for Daisy makes Tom want to fix the mistakes he has made. Both men love Daisy. Daisy has loved both men. Tom and Gatsby show an enormous amount of passion for Daisy, but only one of the two men gets to have her love in return.
Throughout the story, Tom shows much aggression. Tom can even be abusive. Gatsby, however, shows little aggression and he can restrain from aggressive behaviors much better than Tom can. Tom shows his abusive behavior as he smacks Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle taunts Tom as she says, “Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai----“ (37). Tom proceeds to smack her as it says, “Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (37). This example shows Tom’s aggressive behavior and his abusive behavior. Gatsby, however, tends to shy away from physical altercations and isn’t abusive. He gets in some heated arguments with Tom, but Gatsby never hits a girl and doesn’t show abusive traits. Another example of Tom’s aggressive behavior is when he constantly yells at people. For instance, Tom’s argument with Gatsby gets heated and Tom wants to “take him to town” or, in other words, fight him. This shows Tom’s temper and how he can be very aggressive. The two men differ in this case as Tom is very aggressive and Gatsby can control his temper much better.
As seen throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom and Gatsby show some of the same traits and some different traits. Tom and Gatsby both have an immense passion for their lovers and both men are secretive and show behaviors of indiscretion. Tom and Gatsby are different however, as Tom is much more aggressive than Gatsby and Tom is very racist as Gatsby is not. In the end, Gatsby learns his lesson that love doesn’t survive. In fact, Gatsby doesn’t survive either. Gatsby took a long time to learn this lesson. Gatsby learned this lesson just before he met his death. “No telephone message arrived…. I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared” (161). Gatsby was relaxing in his pool and realized for the first time that love doesn’t survive. Gatsby figured Daisy would never love him the way she used to and this lesson took awhile to learn for Gatsby. Gatsby finally embraced it moments before his death.