What do gatsby and tom think of each other? how are they similar and how are they different?

Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are the two central characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The plot of The Great Gatsby revolves around Daisy Buchanan's relationship with Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Tom and Gatsby both are very different in the ways they love Daisy. However, they demonstrate to be similar as they both want Daisy to be their very own. Both Tom and Gatsby share many similarities while having even a greater amount of differences.Some of the similarities between Tom and Gatsby include being wealthy, wanting Daisy to be their own, and having hostile feelings towards one another. Both Gatsby and Tom strive to be financially successful. Both Gatsby and Tom find their high status in society important. Tom went to Yale and shows off with expensive sports cars. Gatsby shows his need for wealth when he quits his janitorial job because of his humiliation and goes into organized crime. Both of these characters are also similar as they want Daisy to be their own. Gatsby strives for Daisy's affection and even uses criminal means to try to reach a wealth that will make him desirable. He loves her so much that he does not mind taking the blame for her, when she kills Myrtle Wilson with his car. Tom uses his great wealth and loud personality to keep Daisy interested in him. Their hostility and dislike for one another demonstrates another similarity that they share. Tom and Gatsby get in an argument at the Plaza Hotel and show their dislike for one another. They both bring up each other's faults and reveal them to their surrounding friends. They also insult one another. For example, Tom yells "I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife."(Fitzgerald 137) Many similarities are present in The Great Gatsby between Tom and Gatsby.Although Tom and Gatsby share many similarities, Tom differs from Gatsby in many ways. First, Tom's main attributes consist of being a strong athlete and having a brute personality. Also, he lives in East Egg which contains people that have old money. He attended Yale and never had to do much work when he was younger due to this wealth. He shows his money off by buying extravagant things for himself to show off to others. He is a cold-hearted, shallow man who doesn't really care about what happens to others. Tom's careless nature gets illustrated when he "Smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into [his] money." (Fitzgerald 187-188) He likes Daisy not for true love but rather for a possession-type relationship. He cheats on her and is proud of that and doesn't strive for her love because he knows his wealth will keep her with him. When with Daisy, he rarely acts romantic as he always is preoccupied with his greed. His realistic approach to life causes him to be rarely disappointed. As a reader can see, Tom has his own set of unique characteristics differing from those of Gatsby.Tom is crude; Gatsby is more refined.  Though Tom has grown up with money, he is not refined nor is he gracious.  Gatsby grew up with virtually nothing; however, though he is still rather socially inept and lacking in some niceties, he strives to be a courteous host and generally wants to please those around him.Tom is overpowering; Gatsby is more reserved.  Tom is a large man (with a voice that doesn't match his physical presence, by the way) and uses his presence to intimidate.  Daisy calls him a brute and his mistress calls him "hulking" enough times to get a punch in the nose.  Gatsby, on the other hand, is barely recognized at his own parties.  He's shy and rather reclusive, and he is not an imposing presence--even when he wants to be, as in his confrontation with Tom in the hotel.Gatsby has a passionate and kind personality. For example, he lets people he has never meet before attend parties at his house. Gatsby lives in west egg which contains people who have new money. He came from a poor family, "his parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people," (Fitzgerald 104) from North Dakota and struggled with obtaining enough money to make it through college. He is a loyal and good-hearted man who loves Daisy and really wants her true love. He is willing to do whatever it takes to win her love. Her love becomes one of the prime reasons he desires to be rich. Gatsby considers Daisy so precious to him that she often gets referred to as the Holy Grail. He tries to win her by having "committed himself to the following of a grail" (Fitzgerald 156) and only loving her. However, Daisy cares solely about net-wealth and therefore, chooses Tom. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows how he is a romantic dreamer by always dreaming of Daisy truly falling for him. His unrealistic approach to life causes him to be often disappointed. While speaking to Daisy, Gatsby once cried, '"Can't repeat the past?'... 'Why of course you can!'" (Fitzgerald 116). This shows his unrealistic attitude as the circumstances of Daisy's and his relationship has changed and will never be like it once was. For example, he believes that he actually might be able to win her love when he really as no chance with her. Gatsby differs from Tom in many ways.Tom has no purpose or direction in life other than to enjoy being rich and self-indulgent; Gatsby cares little for himself and is single-minded in his goal to win back the only woman he ever loved.Both, Gatsby and Tom share ways that they are both alike and quite a lot ways they are different. These differences led to their final fight which leads to the downfall of Gatsby's life dream. This demonstrates how differences between one another can lead to negative cosequences.

The Great Gatsby is a story that is centered on three main characters in a love triangle, Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan and Gatsby is Daisy’s old flame since collage days and is still in love with her though she is married. The Great Gatsby demonstrates how the power of dreams can be indeed destructive at times. Tom Buchanan is athletic and comes from a well to do family married to lovely Daisy. He comes across as an arrogant spoilt brat who takes pride in bullying others and has an affair with another woman Myrtle despite being married to Daisy. However, he gets infuriated when he discovers that his wife Daisy has an affair and is ready to cause havoc, Turnbull, A. (1962).

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Main Body

Tom’s wife Daisy was in love with Gatsby in her younger days in Louisville and even went to the extent of promising Gatsby that she would wait for him to marry her. But as her desire to be loved intensified, she eventually gave in to the powerful wealthy young Tom Buchanan who asked her to marry him to which she agreed and forgot all about Gatsby. Through time, her husband Tom started cheating on her hurting her feelings. Residing in the same neighborhood across their house lives Gatsby who still adores her but she does her best to conceal her pain caused by her husband’s never ending flings with other women, Bruccoli, A. J. (1985).

Jay Gatsby, the central character of the Novel lives right across the Buchanans just as wealthy as Tom in a lavish mansion organizing parties every weekend though he remains mysterious as no one knows what he does, how he got his wealth or where he comes from. With time, Daisy’s cousin Nick finds out that Gatsby was born in North Dakota and was called James Gatz. He dedicated his life to amass wealth after working for a millionaire. It was love at first sight when he met Daisy while training in Louisville as an officer. Nick also finds out that Gatsby amassed his wealth through criminal activities as he was so determined to win over Daisy at all costs and was convinced that getting rich getting recognition socially would help him get Daisy. Nick eventually finds Gatsby to be a man with astonishing optimism with ability to convert his lifelong dreams into reality making him an interesting character despite being dishonest, naughty and imperfect as well, Lehan, R. D. (1966).

Apart from Tom and Gatsby wanting to individually own Daisy, they are very much different as far as their affection for Daisy is concerned. They both share quite a number of similarities just as much as they are very different. Tom and Gatsby’s similarities range from their dedication for financial success, harboring antagonistic feelings towards one another, being wealthy, wanting to possess Daisy, both put a lot of value to status in society, Gatsby illustrates his need for wealth when he gets into organized crime after abandoning his disgraceful janitorial job while Tom shows off his costly and luxurious sports car after graduating from Yale, Bruccoli, A. J. (1985).

The other similarity between the two is the fact that they both want to own Daisy. Gatsby goes to the extent of resorting to criminal activities to acquire wealth in an effort to win Daisy’s affection. He is even ready to face the law on Daisy’s behalf after she kills Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress using Gatsby’s car. To keep Daisy on his side, Tom makes use of his great personality as well as his enormous wealth. The other similarity both Tom and Gatsby share is their hatred as well as resentment for one another. This is best illustrated when both of them portray their detest for one another when both get into an argument when they run into each other in a Plaza Hotel. They both expose each other’s mistakes to their immediate friends as well as hauling insults at one another. “I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife” yells Tom is one fine example of their relentless insults.

As much as there are so many similarities between Gatsby and Tom, they also differ in numerous ways. Tom is arrogant with a bullish personality and has an athletic physique. He resides in East Egg that is popular with residents with old money. Because his family was well off, Tom never had to work when he was growing up and graduated from Yale. Tom is a spend thrift and a big show off. He buys expensive things and brags about them to his friends. Tom doesn’t care about others due to his merciless nature. His arrogance and devil may care attitude comes through strongly when he smashes things up including helpless creatures then beats a fast retreat into his wealthy fortress, Lehan, R. D. (1966).

Tom’s relationship with Daisy is just for possession sake but not real love. He constantly goes out with other women without caring about the feelings of his wife convinced that his wife will never walk away from him because of his wealth. With other women preoccupying his mind Tom has no time to romance his wife. This is what makes Tom very different from Gatsby, Turnbull, A. (1962).

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On the other hand, Gatsby is totally different from Tom for his kindness as well as passionate and likable personality. He throws great parties every Saturday and doesn’t mind strangers attending them. Unlike Tom who has a house in East Egg where people have old money, Gatsby owns one in West Egg where people spend new money. Gatsby comes from a poor family in North Dakota that barely had enough money to take him to college. He honestly and passionately loves Daisy and willing to do anything for her love. He is good-hearted and loyal as well. Daisy is the main reason Gatsby went to unimaginable lengths to amass wealth just to win her over.

Gatsby is so much in love with Daisy to the extent of equating her to the Holy Grail. Gatsby gets disappointed because of his idealistic way of looking at life. He strongly believes that he will one day win Daisy’s love, but realistically his chances are next to nil as Daisy more or less only cares about riches and hence prefers Tom to Gatsby because of his wealth. Once, Gatsby cried, “Can’t repeat the past?”… “Why of course you can!” Lehan, R. D. (1966).

Conclusion

Gatsby and Tom are both similar in certain ways but equally different in so many ways. Their differences eventually culminated into an inevitable fight that crashed Gatsby’s dream. This is a good illustration of the negative consequences whenever there are differences between two individuals.

References

1. Bruccoli, A. J. (1985). New Essays on The Great Gatsby. New York: Cambridge University Press.

2. Fitzgerald, F. S. (1963). The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

3. Lehan, R. D. (1966). F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Craft of Fiction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

4. Milford, N. (1970). Zelda. New York: Harper and Row.

5. Turnbull, A. (1962). Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.