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- Nick blames Tom for Gatsby's death, but he'd promised Gatsby he wouldn't tell anyone that Daisy had actually been the one driving the car when it hit Myrtle. Nick says that he "couldn't forgive" Tom or "like him," but he recognizes that Tom thinks his behavior was justified.
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Why does Nick resent Tom?
What does Nick think of Tom?
Did Nick tell Tom he ran over Myrtle?
How does Nick describe Tom in Chapter 1?
What does Nick's tone indicate in the Great Gatsby?
How does Nick describe Tom and Daisy?
Quick answer: Nick's tone in describing Tom reveals feelings of envy, resentment, and fear. He uses snarky and rude language, indicating jealousy of Tom's wealth and ease.
When Nick arrives, Tom is dressed in riding clothes. Tom speaks to Nick politely but condescendingly. Nick remembers that plenty of people hated Tom at Yale, and notes that both Tom's arrogance and imposing stature have changed little since those days.
Tom’s body is a “cruel body” with “enormous power” that, as Nick explains, he developed as a college athlete. Tom’s strength and bulk give him an air of danger and aggression, as when he hurts Daisy’s finger and she calls him a “brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen…”.
Later that October, Nick runs into Tom Buchanan on Fifth Avenue in New York. He refuses to shake Tom's hand, and learns that Tom was the one who told George Wilson that Gatsby ran over Myrtle. Tom adds also that he cried when he gave up the apartment in which he conducted his affair with Myrtle.
Gatsby fascinates Nick, who admires his ‘extraordinary gift for hope’ (p. 8), although he hints from the start that there is a sinister side to his neighbour. Nick tells us he is ‘inclined to reserve all judgements’ (p. 7), yet his descriptions of Tom and Daisy, which are generally unflattering, colour the way we see them.
Nick realizes that Wilson has figured out his wife is having an affair but doesn't know that Tom is the other man. He also thinks that Wilson and Tom are identical, except that Tom is healthy and Wilson sick.
However, Nick’s actions may be at least partially justified by the intense and sincere love that Gatsby and Daisy clearly feel for each other, a love that Nick perceives to be absent from Daisy’s relationship with Tom. Read more about Nick’s conflicted tone as the novel’s narrator.
