Tom Buchanan Internal Conflict

To start with, Tom, throughout the story, has an ongoing internal conflict where he is striving to support his secure, stiff, and confident image. One of the salient reasons for Tom’s internal conflict is how everyone in the novel is looking up to him with elevated standards and expectations. For instance, Nick introduces us to Tom by stating “Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven” (Fitzgerald 10). To simplify, Tom is constantly perceived as the man with various accomplishments from his previous life despite all the changing he could undergo. As a result, Tom is committing whatever he can to maintain the prosperous and winning image. By maintaining this image, Tom hurts the ones around him …show more content…
Additionally, Tom satisfies his insecurity by pointing out others flaws, and he continually criticize the characters and constantly interrupts Daisy. Subsequently, people may directly assume Tom is an insolent bigot man. For example, Nick states “It is up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will have control of this.”(Fitzgerald 17). Accordingly, this line is often confused to being one of the lines that depicts racism in Tom Buchanan’s personality; therefore, it builds a barrier, preventing any sympathy one could feel towards Tom. However, this line if perceived correctly, it will show the reader how Tom is grabbing all the attention by pointing out others flaws. Indeed, Tom, scared of others noticing his flaws and insecurity, harshly comments on others. To clarify,Tom is not racist because he already has an affair with Myrtle who is considered to be really low class. To illustrate more, Tom says “She’ll give you a letter of introduction” (Fitzgerald 37). As stated, Tom is belittling Mr. Wilson, but he is also revealing an enormous aspect of his internal