The Great Gatsby
The lifestyle of the 1920's was like none other for Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby is an excellent example of the culture and the mood of the 1920's. Spendable income was at an all time high, while the "noble experiment" or prohibition was turning the common man into a criminal. With the passage of the 18th amendment, organized crime exploded on the urban scene. Also, the American dream was being realized everyday. "Gangsters who trafficked in illegal booze were greedy and battled each other to monopolize the liquor trade in various parts of American cities and States" (Pietrusza 31). New York City and Chicago were focal points for gangster and organized crime in the 1920's. Chicago had always been known for its excessive gambling and prostitution rings, but the 18th amendment opened a new door for illegal money to flow (Pietrusza 32). One of the more familiar names from Chicago's wild past is that of Al Capone. After being raised in New York City, he moved to Chicago in 1919 and met Johnny Torrio. Torrio was nephew to criminal mastermind Big Sim Colosimo. Torrio was an ambitious man and was envious of his uncle. When Colosimo rejected Torrio's bootlegging offer, Torrio made arrangements to have him ki
Boorstin, Daniel J. and Brooks Mather Kelley. A History of the United States. Needham, MA: Prentice Litnotes. The Great Gatbsy. Papertech, 1996. lled. Torrio ordered Capone to do the job. After the murder, Capone and Torrio took over Chicago's south side (Pietrusza 31). The 1920's was an exciting time of change and reform that molded our country. The mob and prohibition made criminals out of the general public. The American dream was the glimmer of every young upstarts eyes. The attitude of the time period was laid back and relaxed from the recent reproductions of the Great War. However, the return to normalcy would come to an abrupt stop during the early 1930's (Boorstin 576). The feeling of the twenties was like none other, and there will be no other era like it. Themes of the Great Gatsby. 4 April 2001. http://www.homeworkhelp.com Pietrusza, David. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 1998. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Inc, 1925. The subject of Prohibition was battled by Americans for decades. For all that didn't drink, alcohol was seen as the cause of ruined careers, marriages, and lives (Pietrusza 23). Some people were for temperance, controlled and sensible drinking, instead of prohibition. A variety of movements and groups sprang up trying to prevent alcohol. The temperance movement, prohibition party, the Anti Saloon League of America, are just some of the many anti-alcohol movements(Hanson 8). In Gatsby, the subject that alcohol was actually illegal never even comes up in the text. The text tells of
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Approximate Word count = 1073
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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