describe the fight between gatsby and tom. what do these men think of each other? how are they similar and how are they different?

The fight that occurs between Gatsby and Tom is representative of the feelings that these two men have had toward each other since they have known about each other yet were kept bottled up until this point in the novel. Daisy decides that they all (Gatsby, Tom, Daisy, Jordan, and Nick) should get together at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City. While there, Tom gets so mad when Gatsby calls him “old sport” that Tom explodes by yelling at Gatsby and revealing all of the information about Gatsby’s illegal life that Tom had been researching. When Tom reveals this information, it is obvious that Daisy did not know anything about this part of Gatsby’s life and Tom then feels safer about his relationship with Daisy. During the fight, Gatsby almost demands that Daisy renounce any feelings of love that she ever had for Tom. Although Daisy does do this at first, she takes it back, saying that she can not truthfully say that she never loved Tom. It is obvious that these two men hate each other and are, at the same time, jealous of each other. Their similarities include wealth, determination, a cheating/lying nature, and a love for Daisy. Tom is different from Gatsby in that he does not really see that he has ever done wrong whereas Gatsby does seem to know that what he has done is wrong – that is why he keeps it hidden.