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Effects Of Alcohol In The Great Gatsby

651 Words3 Pages

Andrew Joelson
Ms. Kigar
Honors English 10
March 24 2023

If you were to become addicted to something so detrimental to your life and you knew that before trying the first taste, would you do it? Alcohol is a tale as old as time, it was drunk before water was clean enough to consume, so how bad could it be if it's been around for so long? Alcohol has been around for about 10,000 years. It was originally used primarily for medicinal purposes but now that is not the case. As long as alcohol has been popular in history so has the belief that the consumption of alcohol is harmful to society. To this extent the argument against using alcohol always seems to be on the losing side of the battle but the right choice isn't always the most popular. Those who drink alcohol don't know the damage they are doing to themselves and others. …show more content…

In the context of The Great Gatsby Tom Buchanan becomes overly intoxicated, during his drunkenness he abuses his mistress. This scene does a great job illustrating the effects that alcohol has over the human mind and body; not being abble to control your actions. Although not to the extent of Tom Buchanan, his friend, Nick Carraway had no cognitive control under the influence, he was a bystander to the violence but he didn’t do anything becuase he was also drunk. In contrast if he was not under the influence he would most likely have intervened to protect Myrtle. This is just one example of the damage caused by alcohol. The Great Gatsby was made to reflect real life during the roaring 20s, but alcoholism didn't stop after the jazz age; it has continued throughout

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I agree with the author's point of view in the article “The Danger Lurking in Just One Drink”, by Jeannie Ralston. She provides many statistics that surround teenage binge drinking and how it is negative and dangerous to teenagers. In the beginning, the article starts off with a short story about a girl from Massachusetts, named Taylor Meyer, who was too drunk to find her way home and ended up drowning in a swampy area in the woods. “Your brain on alcohol becomes a dumber, more unpredictable version of itself and the consequences can be catastrophic” (Ralston, p.7). If Taylor had not drank that night she would have been able to find her way home safely and unharmed.

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Gatsby is similar to the “cool parent” who supplies alcohol in order to prove that he too is above the law. After spending time with the wealthy such as Gatsby and the Buchanans, Nick has new experiences. He is pressured into drinking by his friends. Nick states that “I have been drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon” (33). As he begins to get more and more drunk, his thoughts become scattered and the book becomes harder to follow.

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In addition to his careless and obvious unfaithfulness to daisy, even more detestable aspects of Mr. Buchanan’s character become pronounced when he is under the influence. Tom becomes threatening, even violent, when he became irritated towards his “mistress”, Myrtle, for saying Daisy’s name, that he “[makes] a short deft movement... [breaking] her nose with his open hand 125).” Shown when he punches this woman, Tom’s violent and reckless behavior is accentuated through his intoxication, and due to alcohol’s illegal status, this leads Tom to believe that he is not only dominant over, but more worthy than both his mistress, and, unfortunately, his wife as

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In chapter 2, nick gets drunk at Myrtle’s party. Which, made his perspective of the night was hazy and distorted, making it seem like no one was having any fun. Nick had said that his memory of that night would be hazy, and it seemed as if he drank just to tolerate everyone at the party. David O’Rourke, an English professor from the Centennial College said, “When an element of distortion is added, the challenge of perception becomes prodigious. Carraway is particularly susceptible to alcohol in The Great Gatsby.”

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When one in-visons the golden and all-powerful idea that is known simply as The American Dream it is only human to immediately think of the “grand” result of achieving the stereotypical dream, portrayed in a vast majority of pieces of media are the struggle and often overlooked deception that gaining and earning this idea of the dream costs. In most cases (and always in the cliché), the end all result of “working one’s entire life to earn the American dream” is seen as an ultimate bliss or euphoria because it means that one is earned the life they now have by putting in blood, sweat, and tears. Those claims quite possibly and a lot of the times accurate but what is almost always ignored is the journey to the dream. This journey is the complete opposite of the dream

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Alcoholism within the Great Gatsby's depiction of the Jazz Age and Amanda's showcasing of college life are not defined in the text as alcoholism. They are unable to control their drinking habits, have serious withdraws, and choose alcohol over meaningful sober experiences, yet it's not treated as an addiction, rather a defining and necessary experience. Excessive drinking was the norm in the Jazz Age, and its normalcy is recreated in the current college experience, and being used to serve the same purpose. Drinking was, and is, being used to combat a lack of purpose and identity in eras of excess. Instead of studying or clocking in at a shity part time job on her college weekend, Amanda wakes up from an “extended night of drinking” and immediately prepares to waste the day away parting hopping and blacking out again, though she is even “not old enough to legally drink”.

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“Let's Drink!” “We should party!” “Let's have the time of our lives!” This was the attitude of most people during the 1920’s. It was a time all about partying and spending money.

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It also shows irresponsible people when Tom says that women run around and didn't feel guilty about it. Many people made decisions without stopping and thinking about them first. These parties and social gatherings led to these reckless decisions because, without Gatsby's parties, none of this ruckus would have happened between them all in the first

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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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