Why Do People Drink In The Great Gatsby

Living Drunk on Life or a Drunken Life?
In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald disapproves of alcohol, which is made clear by how drinking makes the characters jaded, and the degradation they face while drunk. This disapproval is likely due to the real-life experiences that Fitzgerald had with alcohol (O’Hearn).
Fitzgerald shows how special things become mundane and people take things for granted when a person drinks too often and in excess. Nick notes that Mr. Sloane didn’t want a drink, though Gatsby still asked if he wanted “a lemonade,” or “a little champagne,” to which Mr. Sloane replies, “nothing at all, thanks” (Fitzgerald 101). To go from offering a simple, non-alcoholic lemonade to offering Champagne shows just how spoiled and jaded the characters are with regard to alcohol and their luxurious lifestyles. Saying “a little champagne” also implies that Champagne is an everyday drink when in reality it is symbolic of celebration and is often brought out only for special events. Additionally, Nick describes Gatsby’s parties as having the same “sort of people… profusion of champagne, [and] many-colored, many-keyed commotion” (Fitzgerald 104). The use of the word “profusion” to describe the

presence of champagne at the parties reveals how even extravagance can become commonplace; in Gatsby’s universe, lemonade and expensive French sparkling wine are equivalent.
Fitzgerald also shows that those who drink are degraded while those who are sober, such as Gatsby, are respectable.

This notion may very well be based on Fitzgerald’s own experiences with alcohol (O’Hearn). When one of Gatsby’s guests is describing Miss Baedeker’s typical drunken behavior, she notes that “‘when she’s had five or six cocktails she’s always screaming like that’” (Fitzgerald 106). Going along with the pattern of regularly drinking in excess in Gatsby’s world, guests at his parties regularly make fools of themselves while under the influence. The fact that no one is worried about the woman acting peculiarly because she “always” acts in this manner exhibits the unfortunate regularity and degrading tendencies of those who drink too

much.
Furthermore, Fitzgerald writes that Dan Cody is the main reason that Gatsby “drank so little” and that during parties women would “rub champagne into [Gatsby’s] hair,” though Gatsby himself “formed the habit of letting liquor alone” (Fitzgerald 100). Gatsby is portrayed here as sensible and respectable compared to those who drink excessively like Dan Cody and the women at his parties. Gatsby is exposed to the negative aspects of drinking fairly early on in his life through Cody, and his abstinence from alcohol during the parties he hosts (while watching those around him devolve into drunken degenerates) further cements this disdain for alcohol. In addition, the description of women “rub[bing] champagne into his hair” displays the reckless extravagance of the era and of Gatsby’s parties specifically. For one, it is a strange and rather wasteful practice, but this foolish behavior from the women contrasts starkly with Gatsby’s sobriety. Gatsby is presented here as a more responsible adult, abstaining so as to stay in control of his situation.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald disapproves of alcohol, which is made clear by how drinking makes the characters jaded, and the degradation they face while drunk. Since he himself was an alcoholic, it it possible and even likely that he wanted to point out the negative effects of alcohol and the toll it takes on individuals (O’Hearn).