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How Does Prohibition Affect The Great Gatsby

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Prohibition ran from January 16, 1920 to December 5, 1933. During this period, having an alcoholic drink in your possession, as well as distributing any such drinks was against the law and you would be arrested if caught doing so. However it did not stop people from drinking, instead they just found places where they could, such as speakeasies where they could buy beer, liquor, moonshine, etc all while under the nose of the police. Many people that drank during the prohibition were extremely well off money wise and respected people. The Great Gatsby has its fair share of illegal activities, drinking being the most common law broken since the characters were always either drinking, going to a party to drink, or already drunk. Prohibition is …show more content…

We never learn much about how he made his money, though we can see that it was connected to bootlegging, crime, and Prohibition.” (Dickstein, Morris.). Gatsby is first portrayed as a very mysterious character and people spread many rumors about him which lead many to believe that he was connected to bootlegging and made his money illegally. This lead to many reputations to be dirtied. Drinking can negatively affect how society looks at someone as a person and their character. “Behind this drive to prohibition lay a belief in human perfectibility, the conviction that drunkenness squandered family income and was therefore evil.” (Heller,Peter B.). People were seen in a negative perspective if they were always drinking or getting drunk even though drinking was a common theme back then. Drinking also had greatly increased negative aspects by increasing crime throughout the world. “Arrests for law violations associated with Prohibition increased by 102 percent.” (Gilliam, Jay.). Everyone was selling alcohol and going to jail so eventually they had to abolish prohibition. Alcohol was a common theme during parties but mostly has negative outcomes and effects on the characters life. There were other factors that alcohol had a major impact on. The ban on alcohol caused many resistances and rebels. “Prohibition created a natural market for organized crime, as groups of men who had long fought one another over

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Prohibition: Failures and Success By Jayden A. Mendoza "Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it." (Mark Twain). This quote perfectly encapsulates the impact and outcome of prohibition, and why it was bound to fail. Prohibition was not only a period of crime and homicide, but an experiment to see how Americans would respond to drastic change. Prohibition was a failure due to how difficult it was to enforce, illegal activity was on the rise, and that it was untaxable.

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In 1919, Congress passed the 18th Amendment which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in America (Doc B). Prohibitionists overlooked the tenacious American tradition of strong drink and of weak control by the central government. Thus, there was tension between the modernists and the traditionalists. Although the amendment was passed, alcohol was still distributed illegally. Actually, prohibition spawned many crimes, such as illegal sale of alcohol and gang wars.

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Finally, Cooper claims that Prohibition brought about a better economic situation for the nation as a whole. Cooper hypothesizes that since a significantly

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The country was trying to control America’s alcohol problems by law. The ban on alcohol worsened America’s alcohol problem, in fact, it did quite the opposite of its intention. All caused by prohibition, America had an increased crime rate, death rate, and to top it off, America was losing slathers of money.

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That meant that people were committing crimes just to get alcohol. If Prohibition made citizens do illegal things, than that is not something that America wanted. Another instance where Prohibition caused violence was with death. In Document B, the graph shows how deaths during Prohibition were very high. This can show that many of the murders were caused by those under the influence of alcohol.

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Guns, gangs, women, alcohol, gambling, are just some things that come to mind when I hear prohibition. According to the online source American History, The Prohibition is the act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, including any alcoholic beverage. This led to the biggest crime rates of all time. At the head of all the crime was one man. His name, Alphonse Capone aka (Scarface) .

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Prohibition, the 18th Amendment, was the outlawing of the production and consumption of alcohol from 1920-1933. Advocates of Prohibition insisted that many issues and crimes often linked to alcohol would be eliminated if alcohol were to be illegal. However, this wasn't the case. Instead, crime increased. So many people protested the 18th Amendment, that it eventually was discontinued in 1933.

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The American Dream is what many set their goals in life to be based upon, money, family, peace, and love. Every character in The Great Gatsby is selfish, but the four main characters that present themselves as the most selfish are, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and Gatsby. In the Great Gatsby, the American Dream is present, but is overshadowed because of all the selfish people only wanting to become a higher class or show that they are of a higher class than everyone else around them. The Character that has the least amount significance to the story, but the most selfish is Jordan Baker. Jordan is described as an attractive, slender woman, small breasted and has a grey sun-strained eyes.

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Society and the laws by which it is governed are set by one thing and only one thing; humans. Normal people set and agree upon the laws, and abide by them in their daily lives, but not everyone is a normal person. The laws set by society do not apply to everyone, whether that be by legal exceptions, or just an immense amount of money and power. This is especially touched upon in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. In the book, Fitzgerald’s depiction of the problems of Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby face, and how they handle them relative to the lower class, illustrates that money and status make those who wield it invulnerable to the laws by which the rest of society are held to.

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As time goes on, dreams and virtues begin to decline. This is a truth that happens everyday in the world. It especially happens in F. Scott Fitzgeralds’ “The Great Gatsby”. In the novel, the characters are good-natured but at the same time have low morals. The way that Gatsby and the other characters in "The Great Gatsby" act helps demonstrates the theme of the American dream declining.

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He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn’t far wrong.” (7.127) Gatsby earned his fortune through the illegal sale and distribution of liquor. Rumors of Gatsby’s being a bootlegger circulated with partygoers in chapter four while indications that Gatsby may be involved in criminal activity are suggested in chapter five.

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