An Analysis of the Prohibition in the Great Gatsby, a Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald

An Analysis of the Prohibition in the Great Gatsby, a Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald Prohibition in the Great Gatsby symbolizes the resistance of the American people. F. Scott Fitzgerald gives the readers an inside look to the 1920’s. The Great Gatsby is brimming with the resistance of the alcohol bans set in place by the U.S. government. The Prohibition was set into action on January 16, 1920. No one could no longer in the U.S. manufacture, import, export, or sale alcoholic beverages(The Roaring 20s). The government was pressured into the new amendment because of many movements such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The WCTU was largely concerned with the protection of the family. The union saw drinking by men a threat to wives and children. Drinking was also saw as sinful by many Protestant churches(Women Leaders of Temperance). It was groups and movements like these that undoubtedly wanted to prohibit alcohol. Although it seemed like a good concept it was tough for many to accept and even harder to execute. After the Prohibition Act came the Volstead Act ensued. This outlawed even beverages containing as little as 0.5% alcohol. Included in this was beer and wine. Many Americans thought that only hard liquor would be banned, the addition of drinks like beer and wine caused many to abandon the Prohibition Act (Prohibition). Early America wasn’t the dryest of countries. Everyone drank alcohol in some shape and form no matter the age (The Bootlegging Business). Many Americans opposed the Prohibition Act, so they found the means to get what they wanted. Underground establishments soon became a large business and a great opportunity to make some money. The most popular name for these establishments were speakeasies. The name came about because you would have to â€Å"speak easy† or quietly about it in public or around police (The Roaring 20s. While in a speakeasy patrons drank the hard liquor out of tea cups so that if a raid were to happen, they would be safe. Illegal drinking became the hit of the season. Soon gangster-owned speakeasies replaced neighborhood saloons and by 1925 they were about ten thousand speakeasies in New York (The Riverwalk Jazz). Hard liquor was very hard to buy, now that it was illegal it became very expensive. Those who could not afford it simply made their own often in bathtubs. Bathtub gin as it was called, was not always safe and was responsible for causing blindness and even death. People who had no idea what they were doing were often the ones making it. Drinking bathtub gin put drinkers at risk of consuming unsafe concentrations of wood or denatured alcohol (Prohibition). Gangsters realised that their was big money behind selling hard liquor. Not even an hour after the Prohibition Act was set in place six armed men had been found trying to rob train in Chicago of medicinal whiskey (How Prohibition Backfired). One gangster bought a group of pharmacists in the Midwest so that he was able to legally obtain alcohol and then hijack his trucks and take the alcohol for illegal uses. Alcohol used for industrial reasons was turned onto moonshine easily by bootleggers.In many large cities it wasn’t unusual for hardware stores to sell copper still and other ingredients to make alcohol (Prohibition and Why It Failed). The biggest gangster of them all was Al Capone. He made a name for himself by running a multi- million dollar operation. He smuggled illegal alcohol into Chicago. He was also known for being incredibly violent with his rival gangs (The Roaring 20s). In two years, Capone was earning around sixty million a year from alcohol sales alone. Capone was able to bribe the police and important politicians of Chicago, overall it cost him seventy five million dollars to keep them in line but he considered it a good investment. The mayor of Chicago in 1927 was one of Capone’s men, Big Bill Thompson (Prohibition and the Gangsters). Prohibition was never enforceable. Moderate drinking for Americans just simply wasn’t viewed as sinful (Prohibition). The Prohibition proved to be worthless and only lowed the regard for the government and law. In 1933, the eighteenth amendment was repealed, although many states kept the idea (The Roaring 20s). Many scholars have concluded that the Prohibition did more damage rather than help the communities. The greatest failure of the Prohibition was that it led to growth in organised crime. It also failed because ordinary citizens were willing to break the law. Corruption was rife among the police as well as those who were charged with enforcing the Prohibition(Prohibition and Why It Failed). Gatsby was known to have these crazy parties where people got drunk. Meaning he was able to get his hands on alcohol illegally. â€Å"He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side- street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter†. Gatsby did something very similar to an gangster in new York that bought the pharmacies. Gatsby then used the alcohol at his gigantic parties (The Great Gatsby). Symbolized in the Great Gatsby was the Prohibition. Gatsby had large parties were many people would get wildly drunk. Fitzgerald gave his readers an inside look into his life. The roaring 20s. The Great Gatsby is filled with resistance from many American people that once supported the Prohibition Act.

The Town Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Town - Essay Example But, life has a lot to offer him for this deal. Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Hall have given outstanding performances with strong grip on dialogue delivery and with the perfect British-Irish accents. However, the film is categorized under the crime drama but Affleck has tried to put extra efforts to make this movie out of the crime culture (Roger Ebert). This is another directorial attempt by Ben Affleck after his movie, Gone Baby Gone. The movie is inspired by another crime novel. The main theme of the movie revolves around the story of a young criminal guy who is so willing to change the entire scenario of his life but after the one last attempt of his job. Affleck has used the traditional Irish American touch to add the reality into a real Boston life. The movie is based on the novel by Chuck Hogan known as Prince of Thieves. The main theme of the movie moves around the neighborhood of Charlestown. The title of the movies explains a lot about the robbery being the ultimate fabric of the society there. The main character Doug MacRay which is played by Ben Affleck himself is a person who is involved in various criminal activities. James Coughlin is his partner in crime; who is smart enough to use his childhood friend Doug MacRay as a tool to achieve his meandrous goals. In the first scene of this thriller action-packed crime drama, Jem is shown beating a bank’s employee in a robbery attempt. During this robbery attempt, Jem takes a hostage; the branch manager named Claire whom he releases soon. However, realizing the fact that Claire won’t open her mouth in front of any FBI special Agent; Jem wants to make sure that she would keep her mouth close as long as Doug promises that he would take care of her. The scene lacks the basic approach to enhance the real thrill and action in the movie. The movie is derailed from the action thriller drama to somewhat romance-action drama that highlights the

Segregation in Labor Markets, Neighborhood, Education, and Criminal Essay

Segregation in Labor Markets, Neighborhood, Education, and Criminal Justice - Essay Example With the slightest earthquakes, cracks mark the surface, and even the toughest man or sturdiest structure feels its effects and aftershock so as the blow of recession is faced by both white collared and blue collared workers. From late 2007 to early 2009, a dramatic decline in job vacancies and pairing market deterioration caused rising number in unemployment and permanent layoffs as this is by far the worst recession in American history in equivalence to the coined name Great Recession where, as reported, resulted to 10.6 million jobs deficit in just two years. And even with the declared end of the Great Recession in early 2009, the height of unemployment rates continues to shoot upward as the government strives to face the colossal job creation challenge in order to get a resilient economic recovery (Peck, 2010). Three years has passed and the government is still running the same marathon with the victory far from sight. As explained by Peck (2010), the Great Recession may be techn ically over but going back to the normal economic state is still afar. He used the words â€Å"New Jobless Era† to define this time when job opportunities and offerings sink to the bottom. As the government and its policy makers cogitate for ways to solve this, there is one query at the mind of the population, how does this novel system affect the lives and behavior of the people? Can everyone easily cope or will they be impelled to do things unthinkable in order to survive? Both media and labor unions had their eyes pinned on the concurrent lay-offs the following years yet all that was given were only sympathy and not any solution to the problem. The real problem is not absence of work for work has always been available, but it is the dearth of a real job and the career path together with its health benefits and chances for promotion that kills the middle class Americans that used to have a comfortable living. Aronowitz and DeFazio (2010) elucidated that what is offered now are contractual works that offers employment and income only for a specified period of time lacking the stability that it used to offer. They further discussed that the reasons behind this phenomenon are the outsourcing of production to other countries and cybernetics. For a much cheaper labor cost, computer companies such as Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and even some other electrical and automotive companies ought to send production processing off-shore to countries that offer much cheaper salary rates and higher number of workers. This scheme maximizes the company’s production budget while still producing high quality materials for the market. On the other hand, cybernetics and automation had been part of everyone’s daily living including in some factories where robotics replaced the then job of one human highly skilled for that certain task. Automation is a path worth investing by the capitalists for this requires no health benefits or retirement plans and offers p recise production at much faster rate. An example is the bankruptcy of Solyndra and New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), which both used to be the powerhouse manufacturers of solar products and automotives respectively. Both were struck and defeated by their off shore competitions as the jobs were brought to