During chapter 7 the minor character Wolsheim only appears once for a brief moment. Tom points out that Gatsby worked with Wolshiem and he is a bootlegger. This shows that Gatsby did not earn some of his money legally and that makes Gatsby seem corrupt.
Another minor character that pops up is Michaelis. He is the the neighbor and drops by to see if everything is ok with Wilson. Michaelis seems like the neighbor would would be there in a flash if you need anything and is not corrupt like the others in The Great Gatsby
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The contrast between the two minor characters you mentioned is very significant. Like you said Micaelis seems to be a nice person, while Wolfsheim (with cufflinks made of human molars) is so corrupt he seems inhuman.
I agree with Rose. I believe that use of the minor characters shows the contrasting personalities in Nick's world: many of the people, like Wolfsheim, are not very good, but some people, like Micaelis, could be.
Juliana made a good point about the contrasting personalities. Do you think Micaelis has a futher symbolization as Wolfsheim does considering it is inhuman of him to be wearing human molars?
Maybe these two characters symbolize the good and bad side to everything. Where's there's bad, there has to be some good. Maybe including these two contrasting characters in the same chapter is an attempt to highlight the dimensions of people. No one is all bad or all good.
I really liked Michaelis because he contrasted all the wrong we've seen, I think it was honorable and kind of him to stay up all hours in the morning with Wilson while he had no one. He definitely is their to contrast Wolfsheim, I agree.
Michaelis contrasts all of the evil we see in the book, and seems to show the sense of morality that still barely remains admist the chaos in the novel.
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