摘 要

《了不起的盖茨比》是菲茨杰拉德的经典之作，奠定了他在现代美国文学史上的地位。文中的汤姆·布坎南是堕落的上层阶级的代表，他高傲自负、荒淫无度、自私冷漠，是盖茨比死亡的真正凶手。尽管国内外对《了不起的盖茨比》的研究众多，但主要集中在对盖茨比的形象分析、女性主义、美国梦的破灭、写作技巧和艺术手法等方面，而对汤姆的人物形象缺乏系统的研究。基于前人的研究基础，本文以汤姆为研究对象,力求全面、细致地对他的形象及象征意义作进一步研究。本文共有五个部分。导言部分简要介绍小说《了不起的盖茨比》、菲茨杰拉德和汤姆·布坎南，并简述课题相关的研究现状。第一部分通过他的言行和对他人的态度对汤姆·布坎南的社会地位、性格和精神世界等形象进行详细的分析。第二部分对比汤姆和盖茨比的社会地位、对金钱和名利和对爱情的追求和看法。第三部分讨论小说反映的金钱主义和享乐主义，以及在其影响下，上流社会丰富的物质财富与空虚的精神世界和美国梦的幻灭。结论部分对汤姆的形象、角色所蕴含的深刻含义和所折射出来的社会问题予以总结，同时提出研究中出现的不足之处和还需解决的问题。

关键词：了不起的盖茨比；汤姆·布坎南；美国梦的幻灭；金钱主义；享乐主义

Abstract

The Great Gatsby is Fitzgerald's classic work, which establishes his status in the history of modern American literature. Tom Buchanan is the representative of the depraved upper class. He is arrogant, extravagant, selfish and indifferent. He is the real killer of Gatsby. Although there are numerous domestic and foreign research on The Great Gatsby, the subjects are mainly image analysis of Gatsby, feminism, the disillusionment of the American dream, writing skills and means of artistic expression, while the character of Tom lacks systematic study. Based on the previous research, this paper takes Tom as the object of study and tries to make a comprehensive and detailed study of his image and symbolic significance. This paper includes five parts. The introduction part briefly introduces The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald and Tom Buchanan, and the current findings of the subject. The first part makes a detailed analysis of Tom Buchanan's social status, personality and spiritual world through his words and behaviors and his attitude to others. The second part compares Tom and Gatsby’ s social status, the pursuit for wealth and vanity and the pursuit for love. The third part discusses the moneyism and hedonism reflected in the novel, and the material wealth and spiritual emptiness of the upper class and the disillusionment of the American dream under the influence of it. The conclusion part summarizes the image of Tom, the profound meaning the character contains and the social problems he reflects, and at the same time puts forward the shortcomings in the research and the problems to be solved.

Key Words: The Great Gatsby; Tom Buchanan; the disillusionment of American dream; moneyism; hedonism

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby 1

1.2 Literature Review 1

1.3 Tom Buchanan 3

2 The Image of Tom Buchanan 4

2.1 An arrogant old money 4

2.2 A stubborn racist 5

2.3 A profligate dandy 6

2.4 An indifferent murderer 7

3 Jay Gatsby V.S. Tom Buchanan 10

3.1 Social status 10

3.2 Pursuit for wealth and vanity 11

3.3 Attitude towards love 11

4 Social Significance Reflected 13

4.1 The prevalence of moneyism and hedonism 13

4.2 The disillusionment of American Dream 13

5 Conclusion 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

Interpreting the Character of Tom in The Great Gatsby

Introduction

• 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was a famous American novelist in the 1920s. His works truly reflect the social life of the United States from World War I to the depression period, the so-called "jazz era" and "sturdy 1920s", which profoundly reveal the disillusionment of the American spirit and American Dream under the influence of moneyism and hedonism. His works show the crisis of natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology behind the highly developed material civilization of the United States in the 1920s and established him as a giant in the history of American literature.

The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925. The novel takes the protagonist Gatsby’s passionate pursuit of love as the main line, tells a traditional romantic story about “love and money” and how the dream of “love and money” shattered and eventually became a tragedy. This novel is a remarkable symbol of the maturity of Fitzgerald's creative thinking and artistic style. Since its publication, The Great Gatsby has received extensive attention from the literary critics for more than half a century. Its research has also been enduring and it has been dubbed the “Great American Novel”. At the end of the 20th century, The Great Gatsby ranked second in the “100 best English novels” selected by American academic authority.

• 1. Literature Review

Different authors have different perspectives on the theme and social significance of The Great Gatsby. Zhou Linlin (2017) believes that the tragedy of The Great Gatsby is a life tragedy dominated by consumer culture. The crazy pursuit for wealth eroded the moral heart. The whole society where moneyism and hedonism prevailed was full of material desires and moral decay. Zheng Qing (2014) argues that the three men in The Great Gatsby cannot live in harmony with nature, with others, and with themselves. Their thoughts and actions revealed the hidden crisis of natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology behind the highly developed material civilization of the United States in the 1920s. Lian Jianfeng (2017) contends that Tom Buchanan’s ethical consciousness of family, class, consumption and race reflect that the traditional ethical values still dominate the American mainstream culture.

In most of the studies on The Great Gatsby, the views on the characters of Gatsby, Daisy and Tom are basically the same. Gatsby is loyal to love. He spent all his life on chasing dreams of wealth and love. Tom is unfaithful to love. In his mind, money is everything (Zhang, 2015). Daisy is beautiful and elegant from the outside, but her inside is money-oriented, frivolous and indifferent, which make her a typical example of the Jazz Age and “material girl” (Xia amp; Wang, 2012).

In interpreting Tom, Li Jing (2016) believes that Tom is physically well-developed, simple-minded, self-righteous and dissolute. Although Tom exists as a negative character, he is at the center of the relationship between characters and plays a decisive role in the development of the plot. Wang Jie (2017) used Versehueren’s theory of adaptation to analyze Tom's language. Tom adapted to the mental, social, and physical worlds during his verbal communication, which shows his arrogance, brutality, and contempt for other races and classes.

Although there is little research on Tom’s image and scholars have a relatively single impression of him, there are also different views. Zhu Xiaojing (2015) presented in the article that Tom seems to be decent and confident, but in fact, he is empty and hypocritical. By analyzing the context, Zhang Huanyu (2011) also found out that Tom’s strength in life is specious. His inner heart is quite fragile. The so-called rich people in the upper class are only paper tigers who are outwardly strong but inwardly weak.

Therefore, this paper will comprehensively interpret Tom’s image from different perspectives based on the specific context of the novel and the references. It will Compare Tom with Gatsby to make Tom’s features more clearly. Finally, it analyzes the symbolic significance of this character and the social problems it reflects in combination with the social background.

• 1. Tom Buchanan

Tom Buchanan is the antagonist in the novel. He is Gatsby’s rival, Daisy’s husband, Nick's cousin, and Myrtle’s secret lover. He married pretty and elegant Daisy with his great wealth and at the same time had extramarital relationship with Wilson’s wife, Myrtle. When he knew Myrtle’s death, he made Gatsby the scapegoat and indirectly led to his death by telling Wilson that Gatsby was the paramour of Myrtle and the person who killed her. After Gatsby and Wilson’s death, he went away with Daisy without any sense of guilt.

Although he is not the protagonist, his existence in the novel is important. He is an indispensable figure from the beginning to the end. The development of all major events has direct or indirect connection with him. We can even say that without Tom, the story of The Great Gatsby would no longer exist.