Prohibition In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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?

During the time of prohibition the United States saw a sharp rise in crime. Due to the fact that the production, sale and transportation of alcohol was illegal,

The roaring 20’s was an era where people did whatever they wanted. It was a time of rebels and most importantly it was a time of crime. During the 1920’s alcohol was in demand, and the reason for this was the prohibition of the substance. Prohibition in the United States caused illegal business between the people of the 1920’s making the 18st Amendment useless, it brought about bootleggers, speakeasies, and this is clearly shown in The Great Gatsby when Gatsby himself is a part of the distribution of illegal alcohol.

In the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel about morals of the

With its increase in organized crime, notorious icons, and unhealthy lifestyle, the Era of Prohibition represented the Roaring Twenties which F. Scott Fitzgerald vividly portrayed in The Great Gatsby.

The rise of mass disobedience to prohibition took the amendment’s supporters by surprise. Working class consumption moved from the saloon to the home, backyard stills and bathtub gin replaced the mass-produced alcoholic items that were no longer available and those who could afford to flocked to speakeasies. All of those who produced booze at home or partook of the glamour and glitz of the speakeasy were breaking the law, but doing so was considered chic and to a large percentage of Americans a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Society culture largely ignored the act while immigrant and working-class culture was unduly affected by the act. The closure of all alcohol-related businesses was a reason for a rise in unemployment. People were struggling to feed their own families and were forced to turn towards the trade of illegal alcohol. Making booze was a quick and easy method during hard times to feed your family. Turning the unemployed bar workers, restaurant workers, brewery workers, distillery workers, and the packaging and delivery people into criminals for doing what had prior been their lawful profession.

On January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America took effect. The 18th Amendment had been ratified a year earlier, banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”(Okrent, 1) within the United States and its territories. This new decade is called the Prohibition. The prohibition is the era of bizarre and engaging images of speakeasies, intoxicated flappers dancing the Charleston, bootleggers, and mobsters protecting illegal trades. Daniel Okrent seeks to explain the build up to the era, passage of the 18th Amendment, the public 's activities in the age of Prohibition, the ultimate repeal of the law by the 21st Amendment, and the final outcomes.

To what extent of a person becoming more well- known, popular, rich, and more or less famous is the limit to their values, morals, and true self? Many during the age of 1920 started to be faced with such a question. How does it happen and how do their morals go so quickly out the window when faced with a new and higher social or economic state? In this story Gatsby was a fine young man with dreams and aspirations for his future and who he wanted to become. Him deep down still had these morals inside of him, but with the increase in his wealth, like many others, these morals began to fade to the background. Fitzgerald is able to show us how Gatsby and the people he surrounded himself with lost their morals through when Daisy left Gatsby for Tom, and when Gatsby was killed.

The introduction of prohibition in 1919 created countless opinions and issues in American society. Although prohibition had been a long time problem in America, with groups promoting it since the late eighteenth

In his song “All Falls Down,” mildly talented musician Kanye West emotionally raps, “We buy our way out of jail, but we can’t buy freedom.” Criticizing how those that are wealthy are able to control the world around them with their money, able to use it to get even “out of jail,” West asserts that such a reliance on wealth is ultimately restricting, as it cannot buy intangible things such as “freedom.” In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the titular character, Jay Gatsby surrounds himself with wealth and extravagance in order to leave his previous life of dullness and banality and pursue an unrealistic and fragile love with Daisy. Though he is able to assume a new, affluent identity, he is ultimately unsuccessful in love, as his wealth disconnects him from reality, preventing him from realizing the impossibility of his goal. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, maintains a sort of obsession with Gatsby, becoming sucked into his extravagant and wealthy lifestyle. However, by doing so, he begins to see the world in a new yet almost fantastical light, where even he is unable to comprehend the consequences of his actions and mannerisms. Under this, Fitzgerald contends that wealth and materialism are crutches that ultimately serve to skew and misrepresent surrounding reality.

“On January 16, 1920, the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol were prohibited (“Prohibition”).” Anywhere handling alcohol was required to shut down (“Prohibition”). Many people believed that alcohol was the root of many problems, so that with the elimination of it our nation’s problems might decrease. The ‘noble experiment’, as many called it, was supposed to relieve the nation of issues like, crime, social problems, tax burden, and health issues (Thornton). With Prohibition being set into motion we actually saw the opposite of what we had hoped. The new amendment was ineffective because the crime rates increased, the work force changed, and health problems skyrocketed.

“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty,

In 1920 the 18th amendment to the U.S. constitution went into effect, banning alcohol and beginning prohibition in America. Its supporters vilified alcohol; they claimed that alcohol was an ineffective way to escape pain, that drinkers were slaves to the drink, and that alcohol causes men to revert back to a brutish state. Fitzgerald, however, uses The Great Gatsby as an argument against prohibition. It defends alcohol, condemns the institutions which support prohibition, and encourages those who are willing to break the law.

Prohibition was undertaken to reduce crime, reduce corruption, and solve social problems in America but it failed on all accounts. Prohibition had the exact opposite effect on people than its original purpose was. Instead of removing alcohol from society, Prohibition actually instigated a national drinking spree that held constant until Prohibition was repealed. Felix Von Luckner said, “My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal” (Von Luckner, 2). He believed that the law against alcohol manufacturing just instigated more drinking. The people during this period in time were so rebellious that they would do the opposite of anything that they were told to do. This had a huge contribution to the failure of Prohibition. Due to the failure of Prohibition, America’s society had fallen spiral to a drinking spree (Batchelor, 1). Many believed that the main cause of the failure of Prohibition was the breakdown of the enforcement agencies. In Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said, “The Prohibition Enforcement Unit has entirely broken down. It is discredited; it has become a joke…” (La Guardia, 2). The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity was lost due to the failure of the Prohibition Enforcement Unit. If the law was stronger and better enforced, Prohibition could have succeeded. This was very detrimental to society because it showed the

When caught bootlegging liquor you would be issued a fine, this made things alright because everyone was happy, the laws were so hard to enforce that the government was just happy collecting fine money and the bootleggers were happy cause it was a small price to pay for the amount of money they were making. The most ironic thing about prohibition is that it is the major bases for what we call organized crime.