The Fight for Daisy: Tom vs. Gatsby

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Daisy Buchanan, this woman is crazy, uncaring, and many would argue cold hearted. She is married to Tom and yet, has an affair with Gatsby. Tom is her husband, a very well-off man that goes off and has affairs, and never attempts to hide the fact. Then there is Gatsby. Ah, Gatsby. The young man she was so in love with as a teenage girl. Tom and Gatsby have many similarities; from the fact that both Tom and Gatsby want Daisy all to themselves to the fact that they both love her. While they share many similarities they have far more numerable differences between them. The differences range from how they treat her to how rich they and what social class they are in, to the simple fact that Tom lives in “East Egg” and Gatsby in “West Egg.” Both the similarities and differences between these two men are what ultimately cause Daisy to believe that she is in love with Tom more than she is with Gatsby. The first similarity is that Tom and Gatsby both want Daisy all to themselves; they do not want to share her with anyone. Tom has had Daisy all to himself for approximately five years since they were married, . While Tom will go off and have affairs with other women he expects Daisy to stay at home and see only him. Gatsby, on the other hand, wants Daisy to have an affair…with him. Gatsby expects Daisy to leave Tom and to marry him. At one point in the novel Gatsby says to Tom “‘…you are not taking care of her anymore.’ ‘I am not?’ Tom asked… ‘Why is that?’ ‘Daisy is leaving you’” (101). This similarity goes towards making think that she loves Tom more, simply for the fact that he does not make decisions for her. This brings us to our second similarity, Tom and Gatsby both love Daisy, but they love her in different ways. Tom loves who she a... ... middle of paper ... ...es that they are going down the social ladder while heading over to Gatsby’s house. Tom is richer than Gatsby, and has a far lesser chance of losing his money; because of the simple fact that he did not need to participate in anything illegal to gain his wealth. In fact Tom did not need to participate in anything to receive his wealth. Gatsby, because he was not born into a wealthy, well-to-do family, is in a lower class, despite being almost as wealthy as Tom is. While Gatsby treats Daisy far better than Tom does, Daisy still favors Tom because it is far easier to live with someone who has a predictable pattern to their actions than someone who is all over the place. All of these coincide with each other to cause Daisy to think that she loves Tom more than she does Gatsby. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Scribner, 2003. eBook.

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