How Did Prohibition Affect The Great Gatsby

The 1920s started as a social revolution marked by drastic cultural changes after WWI, the prohibition, and a new upper class formed by “new rich” who, like the Great Gatsby, profited from the illegal commerce of alcohol and other unlawful activities. The Great Gatsby was based on a time period where people had luxurious cars, houses, and parties. A time period where people never rested and parties never stopped. However it was also time period where it was illegal to sell or buy alcohol, but people still did it. Over time, this lavish time period became known as the “Roaring Twenties”.

The United States government decided that the consumption of alcohol in America needed to be controlled, therefore establishing the Prohibition Act. The Prohibition

The producers and smugglers worked under the moon, hence the name, moonshiners, to avoid detection. The agency in charge of supervising and enforcing the Prohibition Act was the Internal Revenue Service and agents who prosecuted moonshiners and destroyed stills were commonly known as “revenuers”. Some of the unintended consequences of the enforcement of the Prohibition act were the formation of organized crime and the apparition of locals in which alcohol was served, “speakeasies”. The establishments received this name because costumers had to speak in a very soft voice when they asked the bartender for their drinks. It was common for this locals to present shows to the public and allow gambling which made gangsters to control gambling and prostitution (Henderson,

The decade of the 20’s marked the change between the pre-war and the post-war eras and modernism and socioeconomic and cultural changes which converted the decade in a time of excesses, crime and degeneration of the upper-classes, obsessed with gin and sex.

James Gatz, a college-dropout, janitor-turned-conman, “young roughneck” from a poor family turned into Jay Gatsby, a wealthy, well-known man. After James Gatz saved Dan Cody from wrecking his ship, Dan became his mentor and taught James how to act like a gentleman. He taught him how to speak and act educated. Which allowed him to have a high-class ranking, and be able to reach people who he would not have had access to (Shalinsky, 2014). With this access he was making fortunes and no one knew how he was doing it. Gatsby planned the rest of his life around one thing, to get to