Everyone would agree that Tom is one of the worst, if not the worst, person in the book based on his actions. He looks down upon women, the poor, new money, and anyone he considers weaker than him. He was willing to punch Myrtle and break her nose. He was okay with treating women lower than him and the poor. He calls George Wilson stupid for not knowing his wife is having an affair with him. He looks down on Gatsby for being new money saying he’s an awful perosn who does illegal activities all the tie. He absoutely hates when people don’t respect him.
Although people think he’s the worst, one other character is extremely similar to him but looked over. Nick is one of the worst characters in a similar way, He looks down upon women and the poor and is extremely anti-Semitic. the way he explains dishonesty is expected from women and looks down on them throughout the book. the way he writes out the way poor people speak especially with how they x’s to show they didn’t have an education. the way he shows his anti-Semitic ways is how he explains Wolfshiem having a big nose and head. Nick also goes into detail about how you can see his nose hairs extremely well and all of his flaws unlike when he explains the others.
Nick likes to see himself as such a better person than all of them because of his family but he shows more of his judgmental side and his hateful side. This side of him may have been kept inside the entire time but no matter what he had those thoughts. the only difference between Tom and Nick was how they dealt with these thoughts, Tom took action while Nick kept them inside. Some would say keeping them inside is better but is it better since they had those thoughts in the first place? my thought is taking action can lead to change when called out but keeping it inside leads to an abundance of hate built up inside with no chance of change.
