Prohibition In The Great Gatsby

On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages all along the shore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby’s house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn. (Fitzgerald Ch. 4 pg. 61) Is how we begin our discussion on what F Scott Fitzgerald, has penned in The Great Gatsby. I will cover; what was Prohibition, and why it instituted and what were the effects of it. How does prohibition affect the charters in the novel, are there any references to speakeasies or bootleggers?

Prohibition was the ban of Alcohol. First we can look at what was said in Historic Patterson, New York, “The Prohibition era lasted from 1920 through 1933, and was an attempt to legislate morality. It took a Constitutional amendment to enact it, and another one to repeal it. The attempt to decrease the "evils" of alcohol actually created more - and new - types of crime.” (Historic Patterson, New York © 2006-2015 The Town of Patterson, NY http://www.historicpatterson.org/Exhibits/ExhProhibition.php). This is the time period upon we find Gatsby house filled with people, whole upper side of New York is partying at his house. In the book The Great Gatsby we know this as the opening of the paper. “I found out what your ‘drug-stores’ were.” He turned to us and spoke rapidly. “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of

For instance Jay Gatsby was the host of the parties but doesn’t show until Nick shows up with his cordially invited to Gatsby house to party on Saturday night and Gatsby surprise’s Nick at the party. “I could see nothing sinister about him. I wondered if the fact that he was not drinking helped to set him off from his guests, for it seemed to me that he grew more correct as the fraternal hilarity increased.” (Fitzgerald Ch. 3 pg. 50) Jay was not known to drink often but when he did he drank a small amount because he wanted to stay in