Meyer Wolfsheim tells Nick the truth about how he met Gatsby and how their business relationship developed. This is after Nick tracks him down, doing everything possible to make sure someone is at Gatsby's funeral. Wolfsheim reminisces about the first time he saw Gatsby.
“A young major just out of the army and covered over with medals he got in the war. He was so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn’t buy some regular clothes. First time I saw him was when he come into Winebrenner’s poolroom at Forty-third Street and asked for a job. He hadn’t eat anything for a couple of days. ‘come on have some lunch with me,’ I sid. He ate more than four dollars’ worth of food in half an hour.”
There's certainly a discrepancy here between everyone's impressions of Gatsby and the reality. He struggled up from nothing, to build a mansion of illusions for Daisy. Before, we've only seen the glamorous, flashy Gatsby. But here is someone who knew him before, as a hungry, desperate young man. It seems as though Wolfsheim wants Nick to know that he found Gatsby; he even says he "made him." He explains it further:
“I raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter. I saw right away he was a fine-appearing, gentlemanly young man, and when he told me he was at Oggsford I knew I could use him good. Right off he did some work for a client of mine up to Albany. We were so thick like that in everything.”—he held up two bulbous fingers——” always together.”
In this short speech, Wolfsheim reveals the depths of his relationship with Gatsby, and hints at the criminal activity rumored to have funded Gatsby's fortune.
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