Essay On The Mafia In The Great Gatsby

Mafia in the Great Gatsby

Mafia, murder, booze, and money….This book has it all.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses the character of Gatsby to portray the rise of the mafia in the 1920s. There are many factors to prove this point such as; Gatsby’s past, The actual history of the 1920’s, the Prohibition act and how it lead to the rise of the mafia, and similarities between Gatsby and kingpin Al Capone. It is also made clear to the reader that Gatsby was involved in the crime of bootlegging in order to gain all of the wealth that he has now. Bootlegging in itself would not be so profitable had it not had been for the Prohibition act of 1920, the act itself banned alcohol. The mafia quickly took up the art of bootlegging and began making millions,

but a crime is still a crime. That pegs the question… why would Gatsby partake in these illicit activities? It’s because of his one true love… Daisy. There are many reasons for any one person to want to become rich, but Gatsby had more motivation other than money and power to fuel his want for the high life.

To start things off, the similarities between Gatsby and Al capone are definitely more than just coincidental.

It is revealed to the reader that Gatsby is a college dropout, Gatsby also had a mentor that eventually lead Gatsby into the life of crime, Gatsby also began living the high life finally but it seems he came out of nowhere…. And even with all of this money, he was still unfulfilled because he didn’t have Daisy in his life. Al capone, in comparison, is also a high school dropout, he also had his own mentor that eventually lead him into the mafia life, they both had lived an insane and lavish life. They were the same in both life and death too. Gatsby had died taking the blame for all of daisy's crimes, and as noble a death it was… he was still lonely. In the later years, Al capone mafia family started to grow weaker and weaker until his power was almost non-existent. While the crime syndicate was at it’s weakest, he contracted a fatal case of syphilis and died a very lonesome death (Mafia in the United States). Anyone who notices these similarities can see that Al Capone has obviously inspired Gatsby in some way, shape, or

form.

Although Gatsby is inspired by Al Capone, he does have a mysterious past of his own that the reader can look into and find his ties to the mafia and crime in general. Gatsby is seen as “new money” which means that he did not inherit the money that he had. But as it is revealed in the book, Gatsby has not made an appearance in normal society before he was rich. If the reader were to look back in the book they would see that Gatsby grew up poor on a farm with little to no ties to the city at all. One day he left because he couldn’t take it anymore and he ended up meeting a man named Dan Cody. Dan was struggling in rough waters and Gatsby used a rowboat to help him out. Little did he know that he was actually helping a world-class criminal… Dan Cody eventually gave Gatsby a taste of the high life that he so desired, and his want for this life grew even more. Later on, Dan Cody was dying but Gatsby wasn’t included in his will and when he passed all he inherited was Dan’s Yacht. He eventually came across his new mentor, Meyer Wolfsheim. It isn’t clearly stated what kind of things that they did together but it’s made obvious that whatever they did was not legal at all. “Who is Gatsby anyhow?” Demanded Tom suddenly. “Some big bootlegger?” (Fitzgerald 114), it is hinted repeatedly that Gatsby was a bootlegger for the mafia. Which would explain how he came across such a huge amount of money in such little time because bootlegging was one of the more profitable forms of work involving the mafia. But why?

All of the money and power from the mafia revolves around the Prohibition acts of 1920. Alcohol consumption was at it’s worst in the 1920’s, an average for men age 15 and up were drinking approximately 88 bottles of whiskey per year (The Great Gatsby, Prohibition, and Fitzgerald). Women saw this as a major issue because alcoholism was destroying families and decided to attempt to do something about it. Key players decided to start a movement to outlaw alcohol all together in order to stop the problem completely, and it worked, in the 1920’s an act called the Prohibition act was passed that outlawed all consumption and distribution of alcohol except for medicinal purposes. Although the act had good intentions, the people themselves did not respond well to this new law… In fact some would go so far as to start buying alcohol from shady characters, eventually dragging them into a life of crime. This is where the mafia comes into play, using the money they already had they would buy out drug store owners and use the place to harbor and sell illegal booze. Places like these soon became known as speakeasies, because you had to speak a very specific phrase in order to get into the area that the mafia ran. The people who actually sold the alcohol were called “bootleggers” and the job was so incredibly profitable some bootleggers could make millions. The even better part of being a bootlegger is that, unlike the rest of the members, bootleggers weren't bound by oath to stay in with that specific mafia family for the rest of their days. As long as they kept quiet they were allowed to leave anytime they wanted with their share of the profit.

All that being said all of this relates back to Gatsby because he obviously obtained his fortune by bootlegging since it was quick and quiet, Gatsby also has motives for wanting to get into something as dangerous as the mafia in order to make a quick million dollars.

First off, as a person in general it is revealed to the reader that Gatsby is a very ambitious man who always wanted to live the finer life. Since Gatsby grew up dirt poor on a lonely and boring farm, he had his fair share of what being a nobody is like and grew tired of it. Even Though he had ambitions to be more successful in life, there is another, more stronger reason Gatsby would convert to a life of crime… and that was his first and only love Daisy. They met at a party and Gatsby had obviously woed her over but he refused to settle down with someone while he was dirt poor, so he promised that he would marry Daisy once he became rich. In his desperation, Gatsby most likely turned to a money machine that he already knew well… the crime syndicate. Since he had already been introduced to this line of work by his mentors he was already equipped to continue working in order to gain alot of money. Since Gatsby served time in the war before hand he was already accustomed to violence, also since he grew up on a farm he was already used to hard and intensive work. Making him one of the most perfect candidates for the job of

bootlegging.

If one were to put all of this information together, it can be seen that Fitzgerald does an amazing job of using these characters and other symbols as a way to truly capture the spirit of the 1920’s. Gatsby with his rich lifestyle and insane parties can give the reader an amazing impression of just how much people in the 1920’s were living it up. There are also shady characters like Wolfshiem and Cody ho remind the reader that it wasn't all fun and games throughout that time period, they symbolize just how some of these powerful criminals operated and thought in the time. The oh so popular green light that keeps reappearing can represent the desires of people in that time and how they felt like their goals were always just out of their reach… and no matter what they did they weren't always making progress to their actual goals in life or any other place for that matter.

At the end of the day, the reader can interpret these correlations between this book and the mafia in genera. The main protagonist ,Gatsby, is greatly based off of the real life mafia kingpin Al capone, there are many similarities in how they lived their lives, their education, mentors etc. that shows just how much inspiration the author tool from the real life kingpin. Once the reader gets introduced to more of Gatsby’s mysterious past it’ll be revealed that Gatsby didn’t grow up with much in the first place, giving him a starting motivation for wanting to make it big in life. Then he met Daisy who stole his heart and gave him even more reason for wanting to become rich at any costs. He obviously went back to the mafia and started making his own money, but the only reason the mafia was such a good option is because of their power surge once alcohol was banned by the Prohibition act. The act made selling illegal booze much more profitable than it already was. If the reader puts together the information they can see that Fitzgerald really did an amazing job at catching the 1920’s spirit, good and bad.