Unsolvable Problem Of Gatsby's Business Partner

18 Feb 2016
Edward Na 

Is it destiny for any writer or director of "The Great Gatsby" to up bring the issue of 'anti-Semitic manner'? After F.Scott Fitzgerald first published his novel called "The Great Gatsby" it acquired a non detachable name tag called 'anti-Semitic manner'. It is due to one character called, Meyer Wolfsheim.

Who is this guys called 'MeyerWolfsheim' the source of this debate? He is a mysterious business partner of Gatsby in all thing illegal. However he was also a Jewish man.

Now, our new director himself knew that the writer of the book by setting the wrong characteristics of 'Meyer Wolfsheim' created some what in a boarder sense, 'anti-Semitic manner'. He said in the recent interview, "I was trying to solve the issue of Meyer Wolfsheim because there's a big question there." He tried to solve this issue by placing an Indian actor in a place of Jewish role according to the book.

Although the intention of this move was to remove any racial or religious bias that people would have on this fine piece of work, it back fired on him instead. Now he risks offending both Indian and Jewish viewers. It looks like he is stealing jobs from Jewish people and he is giving bad impression of Indian people by assigning one of the most famous Indian actor such a 'illegal character'.

The selection of character also changes a lot on the way that book could be comprehended. Quite significantly it reduces all the mysteriousness of Gatsby compared to original book. Meyer Wolfsheim was described as a Jewish man and this also lead a suspicion to readers that Gatsby himself might have been Jewish once or he is still a Jewish but he is hiding it from everyone. 

The new character also diminishes the thrill in the plot. In the new movie released, Meyer Wolfsheim now seems just a corrupt business man. In the original book he seemed more dangerous man, who is the 'big hand' in underground business. By changing the image of the character, now Gatsby just seems like another business man who earned money like any other business man just with corrupt partner. There is no thrill that Gatsby is working with the big underground boss and rising question how he managed to get along with such a dangerous person.

There is also a small doubt that whether Indian person could have been a successful business man at that time of American history. As a fan of both book and movie "The Great Gatsby", there is little bit of a disappointment on selection of the character different from original book.