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The Great Gatsby Symbolism

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The Great Gatsby Symbolism
Daniel Simmons
Davis
Adv English 11
12/10/2012
In Fitzgerlad’s “The Great Gatsby”, the reader knows Wolfsheim is related to organized crime in the 1920’s and is associated with Herman Rosenthal and his illegal gambling operations, which is supported by the facts presented in “The New York Times” as well as Wolfsheim’s quotes from the book. There is evidence in “The Great Gatsby” and “The New York Times” that Wolfsheim meets in the same café as Rosenthal to organize their illegal gambling operations. The reader knows that Wolfsheim meets in the café to organize illegal gambling operations in “The Great Gatsby” because Nick meets Gatsby for lunch one day in a restaurant on Forty-Second Street, which is adjacent to the Forty-Third Street, where Rosenthal was shot. While in the cellar, still on Forty-Second Street, Wolfsheim makes mention of the café across the street expressing that he prefers the Café Metropole and that he will never forget when “they shot Rosy” (Fitzgerald, pp. 69-70). From these passages the reader can assume that Wolfsheim is more comfortable eating lunch at the Café Metropole due to doing business with Rosenthal there. The reader can also infer that Rosy is Herman Rosenthal, and that Wolfsheim was at the café when Rosenthal was shot. There is also evidence in, “The New York Times” that proves that Rosenthal and Wolfsheim both met in the same café. An article tells of Rosenthal’s death, “Herman Rosenthal… was shot in front of the Café Metropole on West 43rd Street” (Patrick, p. 1). The excerpt matches up with Wolfsheim’s recollection of that night and therefore proves that Wolfsheim and Rosenthal were at the same café when Rosenthal was killed. Since Rosenthal and Wolfsheim both met at the café to organize illegal gambling, they are therefore, related in organized crime in the 1920’s. In “The Great Gatsby” and “The New York Times”, Charley Becker is accused of being involved with the murder of Herman Rosenthal. In “The Great Gatsby”,



Cited: Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The Great gatsby. New York: Simon & Schuster. Patrick, V. (2007). Crime Story. The New York Times , pp. 1-2.

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