The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel about social classes in America in the 1920’s. Nick, the narrator, meets and associates with a group of upper class people: Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby. Nick finds out through Jordan, whom he is dating, that Gatsby had met Daisy in the past and he is still in love with her. Nick invites Daisy and Gatsby both over to tea at his house, where they meet and fall in love. However, Tom does not accept this and he tries to convince Daisy of Gatsby’s involvement in organized crime, causing both Gatsby and especially Daisy to be very upset. Daisy thinks if she drives it will calm her down, but instead it makes everything worse. Daisy accidentally hits Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, killing her instantly. This trouble leads to the murder of Gatsby. Throughout this novel Fitzgerald shows how the upper classes often take advantage of their money, and there are no consequences for them. The character of Tom Buchanan, a rich American man of the 1920‘s, represents the worst of his class of people.

Tom is shown to be a very materialistic man. The appearance of Tom’s house is very important to him. He has a very expensive house in East Egg, which is the more luxurious of the two Eggs. His house had once belonged to an oilman and has “a sunken Italian garden, a half acre deep, pungent roses, and a snub-nosed motorboat that bumped the tide offshore” (p. 8). When Tom first meets Nick he says “’I’ve got a nice place here’” (p. 7). Tom also believes that his money can get him anything. Daisy married him because of his money. He bought her an expensive pearl necklace. The last time Nick sees him he is standing outside a jewelry store. After they shake hands Nick observes that Tom “went into the jewelry store to buy a pearl necklace-or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons” (p. 181). Fitzgerald uses Tom’s extreme materialistic manner to help demonstrate his idea of the lowest of the upper class.

According to the stereotype, rich men often have mistresses. Tom has a mistress named Myrtle. Tom and Myrtle’s relationship is mostly out in the open. The first evidence of this relationship is during Nick’s first visit with Daisy. Tom gets a phone call, and Jordan tells Nick “’Tom’s got some woman in New York” (p. 15). Later, Tom takes Nick to meet Myrtle. Myrtle sends her husband away to get chairs, and then makes plans to meet with Tom. Tom and Myrtle have their own apartment. They also have a dog Tom bought for Myrtle. Tom has had more than one mistress. When Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Nick and Jordan go into town one hot afternoon Gatsby and Tom get into an argument about whether or not Daisy has ever loved Tom. Gatsby claims that Daisy loves him and not Tom, and that Daisy has never loved Tom. Tom says that Daisy does love him and that he loves her too: “’Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time’” (p. 132). When Tom was in a car accident without Daisy there was another woman included on the accident report, which presumably was another of Tom’s mistresses. Rich men like Tom are known to have mistresses.

The stereotypical rich man was often an unpleasant, mean person. Tom’s character was displayed with tremendous cruelty. Tom was sometimes very violent. When Nick first visits Daisy she says she hurt her knuckle, and she says “’You did it, Tom,“ and “’I know you didn’t mean to, but you did do it. That’s what I get for marrying a brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen of a---’” (p. 12). He is also a racist person who thinks the colored races will take over. Tom is not always violent on purpose, but he is a careless person. As Nick says,

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…(p.180-181).

When Myrtle and Tom are together Myrtle starts saying Daisy’s name and Tom punches her, breaking her nose. When he punched Myrtle he was not thinking. He was careless, and then he regretted it, apologizing. As if this were not enough, Tom is also racist. He says “’The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be-will be utterly submerged,’” and “’It’s up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things’” (p. 13). He is very concerned that other races may gain control, or even equal rights. He is afraid of someday seeing intermarriage between blacks and whites. Tom obviously over fulfills the stereotype that rich men are mean and arrogant.

Tom‘s character is meant to show the extreme worst of his class. He is a very unlikable character. Tom does a lot to get the reader to dislike him. He is rude and mean to the other characters in the novel. He is even disloyal to his wife; he cheats on her with Myrtle. He also worries so much about material items, showing how he is selfish and distasteful. Tom’s character reveals some of what the classes were like during the 1920’s. Social status and economic class was very important in the twenties. Often, men and women of different classes did not marry, as Daisy married Tom when she was unable to marry Gatsby. Tom’s character represents the most arrogant of the rich class.