I’m not sure what to say about stereotypes – I would be inclined to say more a product of the times, although w Wolfsheim’s character, supposedly based on a real person (this dude – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Rothstein) would it have been better if he’d been cast as an Italian mobster? Remember, too, that it’s Gatsby’s association with immmigrant criminals that keeps him from being accepted by the white upper class – so for the story to work, some amount of stereotyping – immigrant criminals – was going to be necessary to show Gatsby’s ‘otherness.’

As a ‘passing’ novel pointing out the racism of the 20s, especially among America’s ‘old’ money – that there are some stereotypes – maybe a product of its era, maybe something Fitzgerald was intentionally using to make his point about white America v immigrants (in a time of increased isolationism in the US), mobility, etc. I’ve read that Fitzgerald intentionally tried to make Gatsby’s background unclear – though Gatz might be assumed to be Jewish, that there are lots of other possibilities.

Anyway, a rambling way to say I’m not sure we can reliably read the stereotypes as Fitzgerald being a racist in a novel that’s talking about race in the 20s and racism and classicism in America’s elite.

But heck, I’ll (re)read it and have the conversation–which I guess is the point.