mahjae05’s Blog

“In spite of this wives’ agreement that such malevolence was beyond credibility, the dispute ended in a short struggle, and both wives were lifted, kicking, into the night.”  pg 52

The views attained in the previous chapter may have been a bit too critical of Tom Buchanan; his actions are just the same as everyone else’s in East Egg. All the men are just out to gain more and more power over not only their wives, but everyone they associate with. Fitzgerald is trying to show how influential conformity is to the American way of life through the personalities of all these wealthy men. Everyone is always out to be better then someone else. People in America just want to keep up with their neighbors. They want the best car, the newest clothes, and even the most progressive ideas just so that they do not fall behind everyone else. Many people devote their lives to this endless competition of conformity and yet in the long run really do not attain anything useful throughout their entire lives. A prime example of this is in high school life. Throughout a year things such as clothes styles change countless times just because they are the new “in” thing. Kids do not want to be left behind in this shuffle and thus go out and buy these new clothes to conform to the times. Tom is in exactly the same position and is simply acting as his peers do. Though cheating on your wife is a bit more extreme then wearing a strange hat or something of that sort, Tom is essentially just a target of peer influence and would seem like an outcast if he acted any differently. Regardless, this influence on one another makes it seem as if this way of life is going to cause some trouble for many people in the future, especially for our main characters such as Tom and Gatsby.