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How Is The Great Gatsby An Accurate Portrayal Of The 1920s

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The Great Gatsby is a story of a man named Nick in the 1920s and his experience written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote about the rich, lost love, and included death while also involving many factors about the 1920s that gives this book the feeling like it is the 1920s. The Great Gatsby provides an accurate portrayal of the 1920s in the areas of prohibition, organized crime, and gender roles. Prohibition was an era where alcohol was illegal to make or sell, but the people still did it anyway. Just before the 1920s there was a big push for a ban on alcohol. “In 1919, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , outlawing the manufacturing and sale of alcohol nationwide” (Benson). The passing of this amendment made it illegal for anyone to buy or sale alcohol, as well to make it was illegal. After the amendment was passed and everyone knew about it there was still people that wished to make and sale alcohol. “People continued to drink throughout Prohibition despite the fact that it was a crime. Bootleggers …show more content…

While Gatsby is driving a policeman rides besides them. “I heard the familiar “jug-jug-spat!” of a motorcycle, and frantic policeman rode alongside. “All right, old sport,” called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white card from his wallet he waved it before the man's eyes. “Right you are,” agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. “Know you next time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse me!”” (Fitzgerald 72). Gatsby is showing the policeman who he is because he has connections with the policeman. Gatsby decides to ask Nick if he wants to join his business. “I carry on a little business on the side, a sort of a sideline, you understand” (Fitzgerald 87). Gatsby is discreet about what his business does fully but does ask if Nick sells bonds. Organized crime is a money maker that if a person put in the risk they could grow faster which is how a man earns his

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Despite the stories that went around about Gatsby, Nick looked past them to learn who he truly was. “He smiled understandingly… it was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced… the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself… I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care” (Fitzgerald, 49).

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Gatsby is a wealthy man who lives in West Egg. He tells Nick that he is “the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West” (Fitzgerald, 65). He later states, “I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition” (Fitzgerald, 65). This is what Gatsby wants Nick to believe but, in reality, Nick tells the reader that Gatsby was a man by the name of James Gatz and he was the son of unsuccessful farmers.

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