(1) "His speaking voice a gruff husky tenor"(Nick Carraway) "Those
shining arrogant had established dominance over his face..."(Nick
Carraway) " Now he was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty
with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner." (Nick
Carraway) "...the idea is if we don’t look out, the white race will be
- utterly submerged." (Tom Buchanan) While being married to
Daisy Tom has been known to be unfaithful and frequently hangs
around with a mistress. " You mean you don't know? I thought
everybody knew. Toms got some Women in New York." (Jordan
Baker) Tom has also been known to become very angry if he’s
not in control of a situation. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy! Shouted Miss
Wilson. I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai-! Making a short
deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open
hand." (Nick Carraway)
(2) Tom's Function throughout the novel, is to act
as a key character in the love triangle between
Gatsby and Daisy. Tom is seen as someone
who neglects his wife and runs around with his
mistress Myrtle Wilson, while also being seen an
antagonist to Gatsby later on in the story: "I've
made a little investigation into your affairs-and ill
carry it further tomorrow, I found out what your
"Drug-Stores" were. He and this Wolfshiem bought
up a lot of side-street drug-stores here in
Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter.
That one of his little stunts. I picked him for a
bootlegger the first time I saw him and wasn't
wrong." (Tom Buchanan). Tom's times with myrtle
eventually intersects with Daisy as, Myrtle is run
over and killed by Daisy, thus having the main plot
intertwine with the subplot of Tom and Myrtle.
(3) The associated value of Tom revolves around the colours of red, white, gold, silver
and east egg, these symbols are related to wealth, power and old money. Another
symbolic value that Tom may be related to would be with the idea of the "American
Dream", in the sense of how he has everything a man could want, but he still seems to
want more materialistic things: "...A national figure in a way, one of those men who reach
such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterwards savours of
anti-climax" (Nick Carraway). Tom wishes for things to be the way they used to, such
as back when he was a football star and all the rage with everyone at New Haven.
(4) Tom could also very well represent
corruption as, with all of his acquired wealth,
Tom needs to be in control so he tries to
maintain it as best as he can, but with Daisy
he is starting to lose the control that he once
had but with his mistress, Myrtle, he is the
dominant one and enjoys being around her
due to her obedience and submissive
tendencies.