The Roaring Twenties come to portray America during the time of Prohibition. In the 1920’s, where the book takes place, World War I had just come to a close. Many people swarmed toward the big cities from their small towns. They viewed the cities as an opportunity to search for a more modern way of living. Alcohol fluctuated in many new American homes and drunks occupied prisons and poorhouses. A group of activists made tried to eliminate alcohol and attempt to help the country return to the simpler lifestyle. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the corruption of the 1920s through his character Jay Gatsby and his illustration of the evils of prohibition.
In the start of the novel we are introduced to West Egg and East Egg. West Egg inhabits people of newfound wealth whereas East Egg houses those of old money. He main character, Jay Gatsby, was a man of new wealth. Coming from an unstable family, it was Gatsby’s goal to become wealthy for one girl, Daisy Buchanan. To Gatsby’s dismay, Daisy came from old wealth, which caused great conflict throughout the whole story. Gatsby was known as a self-made man; however, he wasn’t the kind of self-made man most strive to be. Making all of his money through his illegal bootlegging of
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Meyer Wolfsheim was also a gangster in the novel and said to have fixed the 1919 World Series. Meyer was based on a real man, Arnold Rothstein, who was a real life gangster of the 1920’s. It is said that Arnold actually fixed the 1919 World Series. Tori Avey tells, “The novel, at least in part, provides a reflection of the social issues and attitudes of the time period” (Avey 1). Gatsby getting involved with a gangster, one who is based of an actual gangster shows the lengths he would go to be rich. It also demonstrates the carelessness of people during that time. Gatsby never thought of long-term consequences, which would eventually aid in his