More Money More Problems

Literary Analysis More Money, More Problems The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In this story, there are a lot of twists and turns with several characters. Two characters that stand out the most are Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Even though they are alike in some ways, in others they were completely different. The main areas that showed their greatest differences were the way that they obtained their wealth, their relationships with Daisy, and the way they treated Nick. Even though Tom was married to Daisy, Jay Gatsby was not willing to give up on his true love Daisy.

First of all, even though they both were wealthy, Tom actually came from wealth as stated “His family was enormously wealthy…” (6). He enjoyed showing off his wealth off in order to make others feel bad and make himself feel important. An example of this would be when Tom told Mr. Wilson “No, he doesn’t,” said Tom coldly. “And if you feel that way about it, maybe I’d better sell it somewhere else after all”. Gatsby on the other hand, earned his wealth starting young and working for it. He bought a house across the bay from Daisy just to be close to her.

While he also showed off his wealth by having lavish parties, he did it only to be seen and impress his true love, Daisy. This is proven by to Jordan’s statement, “I think he half expected her to wonder into one of his parties some night” (79). Another way that they were different was the relationship they had with Daisy. Even though Tom was her husband, he cheated on her several times and caused her shame. One occasion he had an affair with Myrtle Wilson, when he said “I want to see you…. Get on the next train” (26).

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The other occasion was when, ”The girl who was with him got into the papers, too, because her arm was broken-she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel” (77). This shows that he had absolutely no respect for her. He also treated her more like property. On the other hand, Gatsby rebuilt his life in hopes to see Daisy and have a life with her. Gatsby told her several times that he loved her and waited five years. He was also very careful about respecting her and her marriage as evidenced when trying to arrange a meeting with Daisy.

He did not “want to do anything out of the way” (79) in order to avoid putting her in an awkward position. Finally, the way that Tom treated Nick was demeaning and almost servant like. Tom put Nick in the middle of his extramarital affair without any warning or thought. When the trio travelled to New York, Nick was about to go about his business but Tom told him, “No, you don’t…Myrtle’ll be hurt if you don’t come up to the apartment” (28). He had absolutely no regard for Nick’s feelings despite him being related to his wife.

He had little regard for his feelings and demanded his presence. Gatsby, however, took the time to actually befriend Nick and was never disrespectful even when arranging to meet Daisy. He had such an effect on him that Nick remained his friend until the very end. The ways that Tom and Gatsby they obtained their wealth, their relationships with Daisy, and the way they treated Nick were some of the major differences between the two. While they were alike on some levels, they were morally different.

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