Money can buy all privileges you can think of in but love. The mysterious protagonist Jay Gatsby from the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “Great Gatsby” is a newly rich entrepreneur whose quest of achieving the American dream leads him from poverty to wealth apparently through illegal money. Gatsby’s grand mansion and extravagant lifestyle are quite bizarre in West Egg because nobody is able to make “new money” so quickly. Tom Buchanan, who is the antagonist of the story comes from a wealthy Chicago family living in East Egg. He inherited wealth from his parents that he called “Old money”; this means considerably cleaner and nobler money than Jay Gatsby’s. Both characters are centered on obtaining Daisy’s love who is currently Tom Buchanan’s wife
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Tom is a British Yale football athlete with a personality constructed from his arrogance. Bred in old money, his life exists around degeneracy in his morals. He often prides himself on his wealth and shows off at any given time. In relation to his shallow personality, Toms non-restricted satisfactions for lavish materialistic things attract Daisy and other women he has affair with. He is a selfish rich man who breaks things and leaves others to clean up his mess after the incident that happened in one of his sprees, it involved violently breaking Myrtle’s nose after sleeping with her while Nick was in the next room, he is either not realizing or ignoring how damaging his actions can be to others and doesn’t seem sorry at all. He says "And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart, I love her all the time." (Fitzgerald, 251-252) which demonstrates himself as very manipulative, he feels like his “sprees” don’t matter as long as he comes back to Daisy after they’re over. Tom's materialism is reflected in the novel as Jordan Baker describes Daisy's wedding to Nick as “...She married Tom Buchanan of Chicago with more pomp... than Louisville had ever seen. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” (Fitzgerald, 135). In addition, Tom sees himself above anyone who does not have money. He doesn't seem to care for others and takes no responsibility for his fault. Unlike Tom, Gatsby is rather a passionate, kind-hearted and loyal individual. Gatsby has a warm welcoming personality sharing his wealth with the world by throwing fancy parties to complete strangers. Although both Gatsby and Tom lived a similar wealthy style of life, a difference between Tom
Tom is a British Yale football athlete with a personality constructed from his arrogance. Bred in old money, his life exists around degeneracy in his morals. He often prides himself on his wealth and shows off at any given time. In relation to his shallow personality, Toms non-restricted satisfactions for lavish materialistic things attract Daisy and other women he has affair with. He is a selfish rich man who breaks things and leaves others to clean up his mess after the incident that happened in one of his sprees, it involved violently breaking Myrtle’s nose after sleeping with her while Nick was in the next room, he is either not realizing or ignoring how damaging his actions can be to others and doesn’t seem sorry at all. He says "And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart, I love her all the time." (Fitzgerald, 251-252) which demonstrates himself as very manipulative, he feels like his “sprees” don’t matter as long as he comes back to Daisy after they’re over. Tom's materialism is reflected in the novel as Jordan Baker describes Daisy's wedding to Nick as “...She married Tom Buchanan of Chicago with more pomp... than Louisville had ever seen. He came down with a hundred people in four private cars and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” (Fitzgerald, 135). In addition, Tom sees himself above anyone who does not have money. He doesn't seem to care for others and takes no responsibility for his fault. Unlike Tom, Gatsby is rather a passionate, kind-hearted and loyal individual. Gatsby has a warm welcoming personality sharing his wealth with the world by throwing fancy parties to complete strangers. Although both Gatsby and Tom lived a similar wealthy style of life, a difference between Tom