How Is Prohibition Shown In The Great Gatsby

The Great gatsby is the story of several characters who try to accomplish the American dream and live a carefree lifestyle. Three characters who embody this movent are Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy. The live through illusions to escape their realities and try to impress one another with their riches, or devotion to each other. Fitzgerald uses these characters to represent some of the real life illusion of the time such as gender equality, achieving american dream through climbing the social ladder, and returning to a moral code like laws of prohibition.

II. Gatsby:

One of the main characters, Jay Gatz later known as Jay Gatsby, lives through the illusion that he is a very successful and happy man and that he can win his old love back.

Even though, woman have been given rights in this era, they still are treated with little respect from their husbands and friends. Tom, Daisy's husband is very sexist to both Daisy and his Mistris Myrtl as he constantly beats her and orders both her and Daisy around. He gives sertyoticla opinions such as, woman shouldn’t learn how to drive, and other viewpoints which would be considered outrageous in today's society. Not only does Daisy suffer in her marriage but she also makes Gatsby suffer just as much. She decided not to marry Gatsby when she had the chance because he was poor and she was tired of waiting. Gatsby explains this to Tom durgin an argument saying “‘She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried. ‘She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. (pg. 139/ Fitzgerald). This sentence shows how much anguish she has put Gatsby. Since then Gatsby has tried to make a fortune so Daisy would be with him. The american dream for Daisy is finding the love of her life and have a stable marriage, but because of Tom cheating on her and her being in love with Jay Gatsby, she can’t find a happy

He spends all his time with them so he can have the experience the upper class. His reality is that he is poor and is trying to climb the social class through influence instead of his job or self determination. Nick at times becomes envious because he can’t live the life that Gatsby has. ““Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn” (pg.4/ Fitzgerald). Nick is envious of how Gatsby has a carefree and luxurious life and he is left with a terrible job and run down house. He is reminded of this every time he goes outside. He compares his wealth to Gatsby by explaining the details of his house and his lawn to Gatsby's. Nicks reality is that he is just as lost as Daisy and Gatsby. He wanders from the Middle East to New York to see if he can become successful like any other man in America. He loves spending time with Gatsby because it's the only time where he can live a lavish life unlike his real life where he has a terrible job and an even worse