Effects Of Prohibition In The Great Gatsby

The roaring 20s was an era of mass consumerism, society was on a moral downfall that led to the progressive movement as an attempt to put an end to the reckless behavior. The symbolism of corruption and social decay displayed in the Great Gatsby is mirrored in the 1920s through the controversial eighteenth amendment. The prohibition of alcohol was an attempt to improve societies way of life, but instead it created greater dilemmas such as, boot legging wars, corruption, and social decay.
As the eighteenth amendment went under effect it immediately brought bootlegging wars along with it. Gangs saw profitable gains from this new law and immediately went into action to get alcohol in their hands. “ Prohibition was barely an hour old, and the bootleg wars were already under way” (Gingold 1). Gatsby obtained great wealth through bootlegging, referring to it as the “drug-store” business. The countries thirst for alcohol created gang wars over territorial profits and bloodshed became common.

“…Stronger gangs began to muscle in on other gangs territory, and the struggle over profits got bloodier” (Gingold 1). When Wolfsheim is introduced in the novel he was wearing human molars as cufflinks, perhaps from rival bootleggers he's gotten out of the way.
Another effect of prohibition was corruption, the demand for alcohol was high and people needed a place to drink.

Speakeasies were soon taking over cities providing alcohol behind closed doors of legal businesses. Bootleggers often paid officials to provide protection and prevent prosecution. When Gatsby is pulled over by a police officer, Gatsby shows him a card and the officer lets him go. It is clear that Gatsby already had the police bought and on his side. “ Mob bosses would simply put the fix on police, federal agents, and even judges, paying them in exchange for protection from interference and prosecution” ( Drowne 15). One of the biggest corrupt cabinet officer was president Harding’s attorney general Harry Daugherty. “… Sold alcohol permits to bootleggers during prohibition and pardons and paroles to criminals ” ( Giroux 235). Even people close to the president took part in corrupt affairs, the wealth was so immense that it had no limits as to who could be

involved.
Finally prohibition molded the social decay of the twenties. Progressivism was a movement that emerged as an attempt to cleanse society. “ Progressives concerned themselves with a broad range of problems… the growth of urban slums, corrupt politics, and abuse of power by giant corporations known as trust “ (Goldberg 1). Social decay is best represented in the novel through the “city of ashes”. As a result, progressives thought that by removing alcohol from the shelves would solve societies problems not knowing that it will actually make things worse. Without alcohol, people found different substances to substitute the drink, often leading to blindness or even death. “…some desperate people actually resorted to swilling nasty concoctions of Sterno, aftershave lotion, hair tonics, over-the-counter medicine…In fact adulterated alcohol poisoned, blinded, and sometimes even killed tens of thousands of people during the 1920s” ( Drowne 14). In addition, this new era of prohibition corrupted the American dream. “Embedded in this historical background, gangsters seized the optimistic disposition of the early twentieth century and distorted it. Usually originating from poor Irish, Italian, Jewish, or Polish immigrant families and faced with few legitimate economic opportunities in mainstream America, gangsters appropriated Alger’s rags-to-riches ideal, and the public took notice” (Beshears 199). This new idea of rags to riches corrupted the true American dream and contributed to the social decay of the 1920s.
Prohibition played a major role in the