Portrayal of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby

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A level English Mind Map on Portrayal of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, created by Drasti Patel on 01/10/2017.
Drasti Patel
Mind Map by Drasti Patel, updated more than 1 year ago
Drasti Patel
Created by Drasti Patel about 7 years ago
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Resource summary

Portrayal of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby
  1. (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)
    1. (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.
      1. (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.
        1. (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.

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