Chapter 4, pages 61-80.

In this chapter, Nick starts by telling about his lunch he had with Gatsby, where we learn more about Gatsby's background. While driving in the city, Gatsby speeds and is pulled over by a police officer, who leaves after Gatsby shows a mysterious card. In New York, Nick meets a man named Meyer Wolfshiem, an older compulsive gambler who gambled his way to changing the World Series outcome in 1919, and implies that Gatsby also cheated his way towards wealth. While talking with Jordan, Nick learns that at the party, Gatsby told Jordan of his true love for Daisy. According to Gatsby, Daisy has always remained faithful to Tom, although remaining in deep love with Gatsby.

Meyer Wolfshiem: “He’s the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919... It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people- with the single mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe” (73).

In chapter four, Meyer comes off as another materialistic and selfish cheater, like Tom. Fitzgerald also suggests Meyer, like virtually every character, gossips and, in the end, has little to no care for anybody but himself. 

Meyer Wolfshiem appears to provide as another binary opposition to Nick, and possibly Gatsby. While in the previous chapter Gatsby throws parties for the purpose of meeting his true love, Daisy, and possibility the enjoyment of others, Meyer makes his decisions with only his possible benefit in mind. He not only changed the outcome of a baseball game, but potentially caused many other people to lose money in the process. In addition, while the general stereotype of Jewish people includes a large nose, his nose is flat, disproving the stereotype and causing dilemmas.

"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired" (79). The passage stood out to me for multiple reasons. First, the vivid language depicting the negativity in the American people reminds me directly of the speech on the statue of liberty, which asks for all the negativity in exchange for promise in the new land. Also, the class discussion on the "lost generation" ties into this description, because the people who likely feel busy and tired include the members of the lost generation, who suffered a loss if individuality and hope during and after World War I, and still search for internal happiness.