Why Is Prohibition Important In The Great Gatsby

One side to this debate is that the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to around 18 or 19 years old, and that young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments. This idea is presented by Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Sciences at Indiana University. She states that environments such as taverns, pubs, restaurants and official university functions can be considered to be controlled environments. “In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs. Mature and sensible drinking behavior would be expected” (Engs). In her article, Engs uses phrases such as “forbidden fruit,” and “a badge of rebellion against authority” to describe how teens view drinking. In her opinion, if the drinking age were to be lowered, young adults would no longer feel the pressure to drink in order to “be cool.”

Young people have been attracted to alcohol since the early 1820’s, and it “...has rattled authorities around the world for centuries” (Clark 5). Through the 1800’s and into the 1900’s, “...anti-saloon activists helped to pass Prohibition in 1919 by circulating pictures of children sneaking alcohol out of taverns” (Clark 5). Teen drinking, however, climbed quickly after World War II and proceeded in an upward motion up into, “...the early 1970’s…[where there was a] successful movement to give 18-year-olds the right to vote” (Clark 6). And with

“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college

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.

Books are banned due to many reasons including the American Library Association, parents, school administrators and teachers. There are many books in our school curriculum that have been banned or challenged in other places, but our school has never had this problem with any book. Many people are banning books to keep students from being corrupted by topics they may not understand. Yet this book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has a theme that can be tied in with our world today. The main themes the book focuses on are teaching others to know right from wrong, how it can reflect on others future, and making decisions wisely no matter the consequence. There are some books that shouldn’t be required to read in a class, but should be allowed at the high school level.

As freshmen step foot on Boston College during move-in, the newest Eagles have many expectations for their upcoming college years which involves tailgates, parties, clubbing, and other activities. Boston College is a Jesuit Catholic university. Although Boston College is a religious institution, students still consume alcohol in dangerous amounts. Freshmen come to Boston College with various drinking experiences: familiar, somewhat familiar, or unfamiliar with alcohol. Many drinking habits are established during a student’s freshman year. Freshmen are excited to experience their first ounce of freedom and this definitive moment in their life often leads to dangerous drinking habits and poor decision making. Freshman year is the time where one forms their identity in college without the physical presence of their guardians. Aristotle claims that humans are “social animals” and our interactions with others shape how we live and who we are. (Mattison 139). Humans naturally take cues on how to act from those who we surround ourselves with. From Senior Tuesdays, to Thirsty Thursdays, to weekends and Marathon Monday, drinking has become a habit for many students at Boston College. It is hard to picture a weekend at Boston College where beer cans are not scattered in a Mod backyard or vague cheers echoing from a crowded common room where a drinking game is being played on a Saturday. We often hear ambulances during weekends rushing through campus to transport students to the hospital who drank too much, but students rarely see drinking copious amounts of alcohol as a real problem. According to Mattison, temperance is the virtue of well-ordered desires for pleasures. (Mattison 68). Drinking and temperance have an interesting relationship here at Boston College. Many students who drink often see alcohol as full of pleasure, but their actions are not well-ordered according to Mattison. The media

The 1920s was time when the 18th amendment banned alcohol and more crime occurred. In “the great Gatsby” the ban of alcohol is a big deal, people going to parties drinking doing the extreme to get a drink. The novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald talking about prohibition; how it is a big deal during the 1920s, and what it was causing during the story.

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.

The consumption of alcohol as a habitual behavior has long been associated with the American collegiate experience, despite the many known negative consequences a student who partakes in drinking can encounter. Because of the danger drunken students pose to a college’s reputation and the safety of its surrounding areas, much research has been done concerning the collegiate party and drinking scenes. This research mostly studied the demographics of the student body, so strategies developed to curtail the illegal or overconsumption of alcohol could be targeted towards the specific groups that demonstrated the highest likelihood of participating in these acts. When the strategies were implemented, however, there was little decline in the number of college students who chose to party and drink (Vander Ven 2011). This failure did not point toward a flaw in the research data, but instead a lack of research into the benefits a collegiate drinker receives that are rewarding to the point he or she cannot resist. This is the topic of Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard by Thomas Vander Ven.

In the 1920’s there was a lot of crime. People thought that the reason for this crime was alcohol. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. There was a person in the book who was a bootlegger. In the real world that was a big problem. The government made the eighteenth amendment, which made the use and manufacturing illegal. In the 20’s people would abuse their wives and children. “Drinking got so bad that men who drank a lot would abuse their wives and kids. In 1920 alcohol manufacturing was banned after world war I.” This is the reason why they wanted to ban alcohol. Men would drink a lot and they would abuse their family because they can’t control themselves. In the Great Gatsby Tom would drink a lot. “ ‘I'll say it whenever I

Many people in the 1920s lived very extravagant lives. The time of the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring 20s” where girls were flappers and the men were bootleggers. People loved to have fun and be carefree. However, alcohol dependence was becoming a problem and many started realizing that. Taking action to stop this was the hard part. Alcohol was corrupting the 1920s even though some did not recognize it. In the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption during the 1902s through his main character, Jay Gatsby, and his illustration of prohibition.

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.

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.

As Jones summed up on a BBS response, "The certainly love drinking from dawn til dawn" (Jones 1160). In comparison, many of the characters of The Great Gatsby drank excessively, keeping in mind the story was set in the United States during prohibition. Jay Gatsby, a bootlegger, threw large, lavish parties at his grand estate during the summer evenings where the alcohol, food and music flowed. Characters such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, Jordan Baker, and Nick Carraway enjoyed parties and drank excessively. Another important parallel to point out under the vice of excessive drinking is the fact that both Hemingway and Fitzgerald drank excessively. Their excessive drinking behaviors caused their writing to suffer (McDowell 91).

Alcohol is the number one drug problem among America’s youth. More senior high school students use alcohol than any other psychoactive drug. Family doctors, pediatricians, schoolteachers, and parents know that alcohol is overwhelmingly the drug of choice among today’s youth, although trendier substances such as cocaine are often given more attention in the headlines (Carla Felsted, p. vii). Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that drinking alcohol is a part of the youth culture in America; it may also be understood as a culturally conditioned and socially controlled behavior.