Zusammenfassung der Ressource
The Great Gatsby and Prohibition Laws
and Speakeasies
- Prohibition Law Enforcement
- Poor law enforcement
- In Great Gatsby, Gatsby used a 'white card' to get out of a police ticket
- Bootlegging
- Common crime during the prohibition which involved the smuggling of alcoholic products into the US.
- In the novel, Gatsby is suspected of bootlegging as he attends to business calls at strange hours
- Speakeasies
- These are illegal bars that were set up secretly during the
prohibition to sell and profit from alcohol that
was'bootlegged'.
- Nick meets Meyer Wolfsheim, one of Gatsby's business partners, at a speakeasy where alcohol flows freely.
- Crime
- Originally put in place to reduce drinking-related crimes, the overall crime rate climbed as a result of prohibition
- Gatsby worked in an organized crime organization, which benefited in profits from the selling of prohibited alcohol.
- Backfire of Prohibition
- Americans were actually drinking more during the prohibition era than they were before.
- In Gatsby's parties, 'alcohol flowed freely' and many people got drunk and went wild in his mansion.