Similarities Between Tom And Trump In The Great Gatsby

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Recommended: Great gatsby as social criticism of american society 1920

We like to imagine fictional characters meeting people from our world. It’s a nice little fantasy to imagine what would happen if Emma Watson met Hermione Granger, or if Jane Eyre met Quentin Tarantino.

And then there are the unholy matchups, meetings that would rain chaos and destruction upon the world if they ever actually happened. One such matchup is Donald Trump meeting Tom Buchanan.

When I read The Great Gatsby, more specifically Tom’s various rants, bits and pieces reminded me of a certain presidential candidate. They both are racist, sexist, and general hypocrites in both words and deeds. At the end of the day, they are only out for themselves.

But Tom and Trump both speak to the unspoken fears of a certain class of Americans: losing their dominance. At the beginning of the novel, Tom tells Nick at a party that “if we don’t look out the white race will be--will …show more content…

God forbid we be a society with liberty and justice for all. Should they ever meet, they would probably agree on everything, and America would be the lesser for …show more content…

Both Tom and Trump are particularly vindictive towards people they dislike; Tom sends Wilson after Gatsby and Trump has unleashed a barrage of hateful tweets against his political enemies. Furthermore, they are careless. Nick elaborates on this at the end of the novel, saying that “they were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures, and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness…” Trump too doesn’t care about who he hurts in his quest for power. He doesn’t care when his racist remarks lead to violence against minority groups, and he takes great pleasure in bashing everyone he has a problem with. He’s rich enough not to have to care, after

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