Speakeasies In The Great Gatsby

The 1920s were an age of decadent consumerism. People had jobs, credit cards, and personal debt. It was a perfect storm for economic boom. People had money and wanted to spend it all. Fitzgerald shows this through the wealth of Gatsby and the extravagance that he lives with. Gatsby has a car, a new, and expensive item in the 1920s. Gatsby can buy huge gifts for his friends and can throw massive parties to entertain guests. Gatsby and others get rich from consumerism, people want alcohol and he, and others have it for sale. People will pay the bootleggers whatever is necessary to get what they crave.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, provides a reflection on the societal issues and attitudes of a modernist, post-war era. The “Roaring Twenties” was an age of prosperity, consumerism and liberalism that led to unprecedented economic growth and significant changes in culture and lifestyle. The right to vote redefined women’s roles and gave rise to a “new breed” known as the flapper, that drank, wore excessive makeup, and flaunted her disdain for conventionalism. The introduction of prohibition led to an increased demand for black market alcohol and bootlegging, thereby providing a financial basis for organized crime. Despite the progression, the 1920s was an era of social tensions

The USA in the 1920s is remembered as the ‘Roaring Twenties’, an age of new life, of hedonism and opportunity following the horrors the Great War. The decade is synonymous with wealth, materialism and unprecedented freedom. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby provides an insight into the exciting and prosperous lives of the American people as they embark on the limitless potential of the American Dream and therefore it conveys a picture of 1920s American society. With

For America, the 1920’s was a time of economic prosperity, and political and social changes. The growth of cities, consumer buying, and fashion changes were some of the key changes and developments during this time. Everyone wanted to achieve the American Dream. They were to achieve this dream no matter what they had to go through, whether it be illegal or not. The Temperance Movement took place during this era and many citizens were upset with the government and disagreed with the prohibition. The Temperance Movement was the prohibition of alcohol by the government. It banned the buying, selling and the consumption of any type of alcohol. Many women began to abandon the long and conservative dresses; They wore short, revealing dresses with long necklaces and they had the classic bobbed hairstyle. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about the relationships between the main characters: Nick Carraway, Daisy and Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. It is set in New York during the “Roaring 20s”. The Great Gatsby incorporated the aspects of the 1920s by including the effects of the idea of American Dream, the rich and careless lives of its citizens during the Temperance movements and the emergence of women’s more sexual and independent in society.

Bootlegging : Jay Gatsby and Al Capone Throughout the Era of Prohibition breaking the law by purchasing and selling alcohol was not an unknown thing because most people did not agree with that law. There were many people during that time who took advantage of prohibition to make living much easier by earning a large amount of pay. This essay will have evidence why I believe Jay Gatsby is a bootlegger, and how he compares to others, such as Al Capone, using organized crime and prohibition to earn money in a booming, but illegal market. Where did Jay Gatsby really get his money?

Al Capone was from Chicago and the greatest gangster in the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition happened from 1919 to 1933 and was famously known as the “Roaring Twenties”. The Eighteenth Amendment was passed and banned the manufacture and sales of all alcoholic beverages. The Volstead act made the law official and stated that owning any item used to produce alcohol was illegal. According to the background essay, “meant any beverage more than 0.5% alcohol by volume.” This meant that no alcohol with more than the legal amount was allowed. Anyone who did this would go to jail or be fined. People wanted alcohol, so bad that all these bars started to open. “Illegal bars, called speakeasies, opened up across the country” as stated in the background

The 1920s are usually characterized as a time of care-free, social rebellion against the restricting ideals of the post WWI world, but it has a darker side than this. Prisons populations and crime rates rose to an all time high from where they were pre-Prohibition. Gangsters soon became the richest, most powerful men in the country and all due to the bootlegging of liquor. In New York and Chicago especially, the gangs were as diverse as the people living there, all fighting to control their areas, causing insane amounts of violence and death. Although Prohibition's aim was to decrease drunkenness and crime, it would ultimately cause more harm than good with the emergence of speakeasies which kept people drunk and gangs who increased crime

Thesis: The pursuit of the American Dream is a dominant theme throughout The Great Gatsby, which is carried out in various ways by F. Scott Fitzgerald, how the author represents this theme through his characters and their actions is one small aspect of it.

After going through the “Great War,” also known as World War I, soldiers came back home in the middle of prohibition, a time where the almost all recreational alcohol was illegal. Despite the government's intentions to protect the people from alcohol abuse, prohibition forced people to find unorthodox ways of attaining alcohol. Prohibition unofficially made people rich because so people made lots and lots of money making and selling alcohol illegally–bootlegging. This is the setting for the famous novel, The Great Gatsby. In this book, F. Scott Fitzgerald exemplifies the true corrupting nature of wealth and shows just how powerful the desire for money can be through the corruption of the American dream, Gatsby’s dream, and the main characters.

“I see skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself what a wonderful world.” Louis Armstrong. Truly the 1920s were a wonderful new world for all who lived in it. This decade shined a bright light on America, with the creation of jazz, cars, and electricity the decade really popped. Once poor men were able to make it big in various industries such as the stock market, car manufacturing, and bootlegging. Most of this “new” money was legitimate although, there were some who were less reputable than other. Those who called themselves “bootleggers” were considered illegitimate self made men, because there money was off the book and illegal. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

When Cody died, he left the boy, now Jay Gatsby, a legacy of $25,000. Unfortunately

Alcoholic beverages were illegal in the Roaring Twenties, which caused many Americans to develop hidden bars or speakeasies to drink their alcoholic beverages. The number of speakeasies increased tremendously when the Prohibition Act was established. The high number of speakeasies caused organized activity to increase during the Roaring Twenties. “Speakeasies for illicit drinking sprang up, and organized crime activity increased…” (Hutchinson Encyclopedia). Americans during the Roaring Twenties knew that alcohol was

Any American is taught a dream that is purged of all truth. The American Dream is shown to the world as a belief that anyone can do anything; when in reality, life is filled with impossible boundaries. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives us a glimpse into the life of the upper class during the roaring twenties through the eyes of a moralistic young man named Nick Carraway. It is through the narrator's dealings with the upper class that the reader is shown how modern values have transformed the American Dream's pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power, and how the world of the upper class lacks any sense of morals or consequence. In order to support Fitzgerald's message

On first glance, The Great Gatsby is about a romance between Gatsby and Daisy. The true theme behind this wonderful novel is not merely romance, but is also a very skeptical view of the extinction of the American dream in the prosperous 19s. This loss of the American dream is shown by Fitzgerald's display of this decade as a morally deficient one. He shows its incredible decadence in Gatsby's lavish and ostentatious parties. This materialistic attitude toward life came from the disillusionment of the younger generation of the old Victorian values. Also, with Prohibition in effect, illegal bootlegging practices made for yet another way for Americans to fall down the path of

The Roaring Twenties is considered to be a time of excessive celebration and immense corruption. The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a criticism of American society and its values during this era of history. This criticism is first apparent in the people who go to Gatsby's parties. They get absurdly drunk, do not know who their host is and are rude by excessively gossiping about him. This commentary is also shown in the corruption of the police. Gatsby is able to pay off the police so that the activities going on at his home will go unnoticed and so that he may behave as he wishes. This criticism is finally shown in the corruption of friendship and love, the simple fact being that there is none. People use Gatsby and