THE MEN OF GATSBY:

In The Great Gatsby is Tom look on as a big hunky man. He is a football stud and a bully and likes to impose his will on others. He is also abusive, breaking Myrtle's nose with just a quick, reactive hit that takes little effort. However he is also extremely rich.

But he is judged and by the narrator, Nick, repeatedly and often. Thus, one could conclude that in the novel Tom's kind of man is established as what a male should not be. And Nick is what a male should stand for, he shows that he has morals.

Gatsby is very much an opposite kind of man. Gatsby is a romantic and idealist and thoughtful and considerate, for the most part. He mistakenly believes in a past that never really occurred, and dedicates himself to recapturing a relationship that was never really what he thinks it was. Daisy never loved Gatsby as much as he loves her. He is a dreamer, and tries to continuously relive the past.

Though Gatsby is certainly presented in a positive light, and he is certainly a better kind of "male" than Tom, one should be careful of holding up any character in the novel as ideal. This is sophisticated fiction in which people are presented as mixtures of good and bad, if you want to use those terms. Gatsby is not ideal, either. He is, a bootlegger and business partner with Wolfsheim. Which is looked down on.