MBTI Type: ESTP

Tom is an opportunist of the highest nature, who needs no time at all to make up his mind about anything, whether that involves seeing his mistress behind her husband’s back (and sometimes openly in front of him, knowing he will never catch on) or framing Gatsby for her death within 20 minutes of finding out the truth. He’s smart, in that he’s also curious about the ‘why’ of things and how they happen—nobody gets to be as rich as Gatsby without pulling a few underhanded cons, and Tom finds out about all of them, so that he can blackmail Gatsby by exposing him either as a fraud or a bootlegger. He waves aside arbitrary ideas about morality in favor of what he wants; but is also good at manipulating other people’s emotions at times to get what he wants. When Daisy asserts that she never loved him, Tom turns on a sympathetic act of being hurt and reminds her of their best moments together, which focuses her to admit it isn’t true, she did love him—she loved them both at once! When she tells him about the car accident, he immediately becomes sympathetic and concerned and reassures her that he’s going to take care of everything and it will all be all right. He can be charming when he needs to be. His inferior Ni also gives him flashes of the future – he tells Nick that sometimes his inner seeing tells him what’s going to happen, and he has learned to listen to it.

Enneagram: 8w7 sp/sx

Most 8s go after what they want—in business and in their sex life, and Tom has also done this in taking on a mistress to fulfill his urges, while being over-defensive and protective about his wife. He doesn’t mind encroaching on another man’s sexual territory, but he hates the thought that Daisy might be seeing Gatsby behind his back—and when he finds out that’s true, he confronts him, offers to fight him for her, and then provokes him so much, Gatsby loses his cool and pummels him. That’s what Tom wants, to show Daisy that the man she thinks she loves isn’t who she thought he was—a deliberate 8 power play. He also wants to get even and ensure he can keep Daisy, so he deliberately tells the husband of his murdered mistress where to find the man responsible for her death—thus getting him to kill his rival in love, so he can ‘take care’ of Daisy (protect her reputation and save her, by taking her away) and keep her under his thumb. He has a larger than life personality and lives a life of pure hedonism, excess, and pleasure, seeing himself as a hero in his own story (the re-framing of a 7, who doesn’t like to admit to his mistakes).

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