Corruption In The Great Gatsby

"The Roaring Twenties”, "The Era of Wonderful Nonsense", "The Decade of the Dollar" , "The Period of the Psyche", "Dry Decade" and the age of "Alcohol and Al Capone”, these slogans are all ways to describe the 1920’s in just a few words. (The 1920s: Lifestyles and Social Trends: Overview) The 1920’s were a decade of parties, money, and extravagant lifestyles. The decade portrayed the American Dream of women, money, alcohol, music, and partying. In the twenties dresses were shorter, alcohol was illegal, and parties were a given. New fashion trends and music, infamous and dignified names, and unforgettable scandals are what remain of the extravagant post WWI decade. If you were alive

The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of Americans. The nineteen twenties are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "Roaring Twenties” , but maybe it was only “roaring” because things were so corrupt.

The Prohibition Era of the 1920’s was an infamous time for the United States. However, despite the roar and boom or the twenties, prohibition did little to benefit Americans or the country itself. The ban of the make, transportation, and sale of alcohol only caused an increase in crime and decrease in public health and safety with practically no economic benefit.

The Roaring Twenties were a time of new behaviors, attitudes, and freedoms which were all presented during the Prohibition. The Roaring Twenties were an era of social, political, and dramatic change. During this age, freedoms were expanded yet, in some cases, they were diminished. Prohibition was an enormous part of this era. Prohibition was ratified as the 18th Amendment in 1919, banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol. The three main contributions from Prohibition were: bootlegging, organized crime, and the failure of Prohibition. Prohibition very much contributed to the atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties in a detrimental way to society by creating a period of time in which even the average citizen broke the law.

Prohibition had many causes during the nineteen twenties, but sercentaly not rooting just from that era. The issue of prohibition came up during the mid-nineteenth century. Many people throughout the United States believed that ridding the country of alcohol would better America’s prominence. Expecting to lower the crime rates, unfortunately, doing just the opposite. Turning those everyday law abiding citizens into criminals just to get enough money to put food on the table. “Prohibition creates new profit opportunities for both criminals and non criminals” (Thornton, 116).

Organized crime was major thing during the 1920s. It was such a big deal Fitzgerald used real organized crime to help form ideas for his book. Organized crime is an illegal act that is committed by a criminal group or organization. During the whole novel of the great gatsby, Jay gatsby came into all of his money by being a party of organized crime. In the book, Fitzgerald refers to a man named Meyer Wolfsheim. This character was influenced by a real gangster, and in this book he symbolize the gangster character in the 1920s. If this book can say anything, it's that organized can reach anyone. During his path for inspiration, Fitzgerald used real life organized crime for his novel. He used real life murders and crime in his book. In one of the chapters Fitzgerald describes

The Roaring Twenties were a time of wild enjoyment, loud music and booming economy. In 1920, for the first time in American history, more

The 1920s was a “time of great criminal activity, with prohibition laws in America and the world in an economic depression” (Nash, 1). Organized criminals such as American mobsters thrived during this time. Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger were the most well-known of the gangsters at the time, many of the common people looked to these criminals as “heroes”. There were a tremendous amount of people who turned to criminal activity; mostly because jobs were scarce and

The Roaring Twenties era was a time of not only of crime, changing action and roles of women, but also of many other different social and cultural trends. The 1920s was the Progressive era that was a response to the Gilded Age. The Progressive era was filled with many reformers that aimed to reform the social issues like the women’s movement who had started a temperance movement to prohibit people from drinking. The 1920s was also a time of a social gap where the wealthy got more rich and the poor increased and stayed beyond the poverty line. In the Great Gatsby, the Valley of Ashes, automobiles, crime, and homes symbolize the social classes, and other cultural and social trends of the 1920s.

To first understand the role of organized crime in the Roaring Twenties, you must know how it rose to its prominence, and what led

The Great Gatsby The all around known famous novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells both a great story about how money can make one corrupt, and about love. Ever since the beginning, Gatsby has fallen deeply in love with Daisy. While gone to war, Gatsby missed out on years of her life and she moved on to another man, Tom Buchanan.

The prohibition era (1920-1933) within the United States of America was a period of where repressive legislation (particularly the Volstead Act) prohibited the production, transportation and sale of alcohol. Although partial temperance did ensue, effective prohibition was hindered by a period of crime, excess and hedonism. Provided this, different representations of the Prohibition era have developed within the contemporary society, with each production offering a distinct interpretation of the Prohibition’s impacts on the American nation and its society. In this sense, I aim to investigate the multimedia and written representations of the Prohibition era, their respective views on the extent of the ramifications of the period and their methods

The Roaring Twenties were aptly named: they were indeed roaring with music and dance, but also with gangsters and criminals. The Great Depression having affected everybody, all were in need of money and ready to do whatever it took to get some. This is why the Roaring Twenties were a decade of bootlegging, bank robbing, and corruption.

The first night after the Prohibition ended, American drinkers delighted to be back with liquors without any hindrance. Beers are everywhere, champagne corks popped and dozens of glasses clinked in to celebrate their sober sovereignty. Clearly, the Prohibition was quite unsuccessful public policy passed in 1930’s.

When Prohibition was put into place there was no system to destroy a huge portion of America’s thirst for liquor. This lead to many opportunistic Americans turning to crime and making millions off of this demand. Al Capone, one of the most famous gangster from the era, famously said “I make my money by supplying a public demand”(The Prohibition Era 77). Al Capone’s life was like a lot of the immigrant population who turned to bootlegging at the time. Bootleggers made unimaginable amounts of money for most immigrants and with few opportunities in legitimate fields they had practically no choice(Kvyig, David). One of the many problems caused by the bootleggers was violence. The violence was usually caused by one gang of bootleggers stealing or angering another. One example of this violence is the St. Valentine's Day massacre. On that day Al Capone sent men, some were dressed as police men, to gun down seven members of a rival gang(Gitlin, Marty). These horrors can be seen in a photograph that is now held in the Library of Congress, where 6 of the 7 members shot by Capone’s men are scattered across the floor with blood from gunshots splattered across the floor(St. Valentine's Day). This horrific event was caused by a small robbery of Capone’s alcohol. That terrible day exposed Americans to the horrors of the the bootlegging. Much more violence was caused by the gangs