Additionally, he lies about where he got a lot of his money by posing that he had rich relatives. In chapter 2, rumours were floating around at one of Gatsby's famous shindigs. Mr. McKee deliberately says how Gatsby might be related to a wealthy man named Kaiser Wilhelm's. " 'Well they say he's a nephew or a cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm's [Mr.McKee put forth]'''(Fitzgerald 35). This statement is truly false. During the five years he lived on the yacht working as the rich Dan Cody's right hand man, they sailed around the world three whole times. When Dan passed away, Gatsby was meant to be abandoned with twenty-five thousand dollars. Unfortunately for Gatsby, Cody's mistress prevented him from claiming this legacy. As a result, he made his real fortune from bootlegging. Jay Gatsby was still in fact that young boy from North Dakota but he digs himself so deep in his scapegoats from reality, he forgets his own family to keep his American dream intact. .
Tom Buchanan is another character who puts on a magic show full of illusions. Unlike Gatsby, he is determined to generate a perfect version of himself to conceal who he really is. To start the ball rolling, Tom poses that he is a great husband and has a flawless marriage, when in fact he is a lying, deceiving and violent man.Tom has a secret mistress who he escapes with from time to time. Not only is that disrespectful to his wife Daisy but he does not treat her any better."making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand"[Fitzgerald 37]. When Myrtle, his mistress, gets startled at the fact that she is just a worthless girl to Tom, she rants about Daisy creating a vast scene with a fierce conclusion and a broken nose. He hits a woman like it is nothing and does not think twice about it, showing that he has no respect for women by being unfaithful and abusive. On top of that, he is a hypocrite as he poses that he is not the same as the people he is mouthing off about.
