Effects Of Prohibition In The Great Gatsby

Prohibition was the prevention by law of the manufacture and sale of alcohol, especially in the
US between 1920 and 1933 .In The Great Gatsby there are many times where prohibition is shown, whether it be at a speak-easy, at Gatsby’s parties, or among the wealthy. Prohibition was a major influence on this time in the 1920’s. In F. Scott. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the effects of prohibition are shown through the characters attitudes, wealth, and actions. Prohibition really affected these times in a great manner. Not even in the story, but in the real day and age too. When the outlaw of alcohol was enacted, there was an immediate hit to the economy. The alcohol market was a huge contributor to the economy and no one knew it till

Those reasons were to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. All of these things seemed to all boil down to the use of one thing, alcohol. So President Woodrow Wilson enacted the law that made it illegal to produce, transport, and sell alcohol. As time passed, people started to find their way around the laws. The noticed that the law never stated anything about the consumption of booze, so they created these places called speakeasies. A speakeasy was a place that looked and functioned as a normal every day place of business, but once you said the secret code or password, the owners would take you to a back room that many people didn't know about. In this back room, there would be a bar and all the booze you could set your heart on. There was an example of a speakeasy in The Great Gatsby. The speakeasy that they went to was full of many politicians and many major business owners. This is where Gatsby first met Tom Buchanon. You could tell that the speakeasy shown in the book was the wealthy man’s place to hangout to get drunk with people as wealthy as