In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author reveals a few aspects, of prohibition that were actually true to life in the 1920s. Prohibition in the 20’s gave a rise bootlegging, speakeasies and other underground drinking establishments. Which Fitzgerald writes about in his novel. Tom in The Great Gatsby on page 107 demands “who is this Gatsby anyhow?”........”some big bootlegger??” This is right, but somewhat of an educated guess because Gatsby has all this “new” money which could have been earned from this new law banning production and sale of alcohol, lots of people sold it illegally which so did Gatsby but he sold it over the counter at his drug store. But Tom mostly thought he was a bootlegger from the start because everyone knows everyone around there but no one knew Gatsby. …show more content…
Cocktail parties were largely unknown because prohibition was forced on the people by the law and by the risk of buying poisoned alcohol. “In four days thirty four deaths from wood alcohol occurs”(Abels, page 107) that death count from poisoned alcohol grew a bit more after time but also this struck fear in people it frightened them. Any involvement with alcohol during prohibition was punishable by law, which that is the reason for the sale of alcohol being kept hidden or underground. Even Gatsby knew it had to be kept hidden as much as possible so he sold his alcohol out of his drug store where he sold medicine for people yet he would distribute alcohol over the counter to people and surely the fact that the alcohol he sold did not poison the people brought him even more customers and people that were willing to go against the law and purchase