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Mr Wolfshiem In The Great Gatsby

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In chapter four of “The Great Gatsby” you are given a brief glimpse into the background of Jay Gatsby and his old friend Mr. Meyer Wolfshiem. At the lunch with Mr. Wolfshiem, you see both men reminisce and catch up with one another while Nick awkwardly accompanies them. Through this scene you learn that both Mr. Wolfsheim and Jay Gatsby have a mysterious and nebulous history, leading you to conclude that both characters have something to hide.
The first description of Mr. Wolfshiem is relatively harsh, Nick portrays him as, “a small, flat-nosed Jew…[with a] large head,” continuing he mentally comments on the man’s “hairy nose” and “tiny eyes”. You can sense from the beginning that Nick might to be too fond of Wolfsheim, this could be due to the greeting that occurred when Nick and Gatsby arrive at lunch or the fact that Nick does not like mystery, which is a character trait that surrounds every aspect of this new acquaintance. Throughout the beginning of lunch the interactions between Nick and Wolfsheim could be described as uncomfortable at best, Wolfsheim appears to be ignoring Nick acting in deft hauteur. As the lunch goes on, Nick is ignored and passed up for Gatsby in conversations, this continues until Gatsby leaves the …show more content…
Wolfshiem is in fact a gambler, and a good one at that. Gatsby reveals that Mr. Wolfshiem “fixed the World Series...in 1919,” and that he never was caught because he is a “smart man.” From the description given by Nick, the actions of Mr. Wolfshiem, and the stories told by Gatsby, you see that he is not the most appealing man. From these factors you can conclude that he is in fact a very secretive, dishonest, proud man. This being true, you can then also conclude that because Wolfsheim and Gatsby are so close, Gatsby could maybe have a similar history that is unknown to Nick

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