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Corruption Of The 1920s In The Great Gatsby

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The 1920s were hard times for some United State citizens. With the ending of World War I a housing boom in Britain and the United States leads to an increase in homeownership. The League of Nations is founded but the United States votes against joining.The Russian Civil war ends but the country struggles as a famine begins in 1920 and worsens the following year. The 18th Amendment ( Volstead Act / National Prohibition Act ) goes into force at the beginning of the decade which in turn leads to increased black market alcohol that is sold in speakeasies and run by mobsters who pay off local politicians. I would say that whilst the conspicuous consumption of the rich is definitely accurate, what is lacking is more of a focus on the desperate poverty that the normal people faced in the 1920s. Certainly, this is represented through the Valley of …show more content…

During the 1920s “the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, attempted to get rid of alcohol. Instead of ending the use of alcohol, “Prohibition prompted the growth of organized crime” teaches Gatsby learns to become rich by setting up drug stores at which they sell liquors as “bootleggers” . At the time of the Jazz Age bootlegging was considered a crime and bootleggers are known for trying to sell liquor at “speakeasies, where illegal alcohol was plentiful” . Just like many other actual bootleggers and gangsters at the time, Gatsby became wealthy through this mean of corruption. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through greed by using the characters Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald accurately portrays the 1920s in The Great Gatsby through lack of spirituality by using the characters Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson. The women of the Jazz age correctly using Daisy to state that “all they think about is

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Additionally, the book portrays Gatsby’s parties, characteristic of the 1920’s, as examples of hollow decadence. The parties were filled with alcohol (which at the time was an illegal substance), dancing, rich

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