Tom Buchanan

Tom is Daisy's husband, and he is frequently characterized by his “supercilious manner” (p. 12) and his aristocratic snobbery. He is an athletic man who played football at Yale and first appears wearing riding clothes at a social event. His athleticism is evident in his body: “you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of enormous leverage—a cruel body” (p. 12).

Tom is aggressive and powerful and is easily moved to anger. Much of his power and self-confidence comes from the fact that he is descended from an extremely rich aristocratic family, and has extraordinary wealth at his disposal despite still being a young man. As Nick puts it, “It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that [buy a string of polo ponies just because he felt like it]” (p. 11).

Tom has strange and even racist views, which his friends and also the reader find disturbing. He is concerned for the survival of white people, worried that “if we don't look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged” (p. 18). This is strange as from a rational point of view there is no real danger of white people ...