The Great Gatsby

Pu Manqing

ENG3U

Mrs. Carusi

2014.10.10

Two wealthy men, Gatsby and Tom, love and are loved by one girl, Daisy, but have two totally different fates. The different backgrounds cause the difference between Gatsby and Tom. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Daisy is Gatsby’s old love and Tom’s wife, she lives with Tom but her heart belongs to Gatsby. About the two major male characters, Gatsby and Tom, both are greatly wealthy, and also whom they love is one girl, Daisy, this are the points where they are similar. What is different is that Gatsby is new money and he wants to convince others he is well educated, actually he not, in contrast, Tom is old money and everybody believes he is well educated. Daisy loves Gatsby more than Tom; she should be together with him.

The first same point between of Gatsby and Tom is that they are both materially wealthy, and the second one is that they love one girl, Daisy. About Gatsby and Tom’s money, they both don’t need to worry about financial problems. For Gatsby, “It was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P11), his house is so showy and luxurious like a mansion, and it shows his wealth. And about Tom, “he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P11) he is born with money and have the ability to afford everything he wants. What’s more, about his house, “their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P12); it shows he is very rich. So it is not difficult to find that Gatsby and Tom are extremely wealthy, they have amazing house and are able to afford everything they want. Gatsby and Tom both love Daisy. When Daisy was just eighteen years old, Gatsby fell in love with her, “his heart beat faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P107), he cannot stop felling in love with her, in addition, Jordan said “Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P76), that means Gatsby still love Daisy very much, he lost himself in her. Tom is Daisy’s husband; he has given Daisy “a string of pearl valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P74) to show his love to Daisy. Gatsby and Tom, both of them love Daisy very much, but one is Daisy’s old love while the other is Daisy’s husband. Gatsby and Tom, they are same in wealth, they can afford everything they want, and the girl whom they love.

Gatsby is new money and want convince others he is well educated. Tom is old money and everyone believes he is well educated. Gatsby is new money while Tom is old money. Gatsby lived in West Egg where new-moneys live in, what is more obviously, when he want Tom know Daisy never loves him, he cried “she only married you because I was poor”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P124) and he is born with no money, he doesn’t have a wealthy family “His Parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P95), and now he has a mansion and greatly wealthy, it shows he is a new-money. Tom is old money, “his family were enormously wealthy”(F. Scott Fitzgerald P11). Gatsby and Tom’s money is from totally different two ways; Gatsby is a new-money while Tom is an old money. Gatsby try to convince others he is well educated, however, Tom is believed that he is well educated. Gatsby “hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford’, or swallowed it, or chokes on it, as