TOM

• 'i felt that tom would drift on forever seeking' pg12


  constant motion verb: lost generation

  'seeking' a constant pursuit of something more, the unfulfillment of the american dream

  emptiness and moral decay of the elite
• 'well its a fine book ... the idea is if we don't look out for the white race will be - utterly submerged. it's all scientific stuff, its been proved.' pg18


  eugenics = real book 'the rising tide of colour against white world supremacy', contemporary readers would understand.

  toms nature has an unfound victim complex

  hyperbolic claims

  'larger cultural fear present in the 1920s' Sarah Tripp fear of loss of class privilege
• 'Tom Buchanan in riding clothes was standing with his legs apart on the front porch.' pg12


  post modifying 'with..' symbolises his patriarchal power: sexual dominance suggested
• 'it was a body capable of enormous leverage, a cruel body.' pg12


  patriarchal

  prolepsis: cruelness cannot be hidden with money

  masculine power
• Sarah Tripp argues that Toms hypermasculinity is formed in response to a crisis of masculinity between 1890 and 1920: tom would've socialised during the period therefore he has the aspect of feeling threatened in the present by women increasing in legal, sexual and social freedoms.
• 'sit back and let Mr nobody from nowhere make love to your wife.' pg124


  classist, dislike of the american dream which promises the 'nobodies' the ability to climb the social ladder and obtain wealth and social status
• ‘you’re crazy nick, crazy as hell, I don’t know what’s the matter with you’ pg169
• 'he ran over Myrtle like you'd run over a dog and never even stopped his car' pg169


  ironic, since he figuratively did this to Myrtle too.