"His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed. There was a touch of paternal contempt in it, even toward people he liked - and there were men at New Haven who had hated his guts." - Nick Carraway, page 7.
Since he is the narrator of the story, Nick Carraway has the option to either directly or indirectly characterize each person in the novel. It seems that he has chosen, then, to use direct characterization not only to describe Tom Buchanon in the quote above, but also for most, if not all, of the other characters of the story. The quote above is how Nick decided to characterize Tom. Without even hearing him talk or seeing him act, the reader automatically has a more negative impression of Tom just because of the direct characterization Nick has given. How can we know for sure that Tom is the horrible guy that he seems to be portrayed? It is true that he is a cheater which is never okay, but who is to say that Daisy won't become exactly the same since she has recently gotten back in touch with her former love, Jay Gatsby. In fact, when Nick returned from standing outside by himself, he found Daisy crying on the couch close to Gatsby. This makes me think that she still has feelings for him.
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