The world was made with humans, humans as created by God are flawed and make decisions that may not be the best for that and/or another individual(s). One of the mistakes that humans make is crime on others. Some crime is more dangerous than others. Many authors have a theme of some type of crime because of how heavily it is impacting our society and people living in it. F. Scott Fitzgerald beautifully illustrates organized crime during the 1920s, in his novel The Great Gatsby and how it was a key influential factor during the Jazz Age.
When looking at Jay Gatsby in the book it is never clear to us exactly what he is doing, or what is going on. If Gatsby is involved in some type of organized crime or not. The important thing is to know what organized crime is first. When most people look at "Organized Crime" they see it for what exactly it is, "crime that's organized" which is not exactly the best definition for it. The online dictionary states organized crime as "underworld organizations" (WordNet). Which could be taken lots of different ways due to the general definition. The United Nations of Drug and Crime talked about Organized Crime in their article "Organized Crime", they stated that Organized Crime is not stagnant and it adapts as new crimes emerge, as relationships become more flexible, sophisticated, and reaching the globe. Organized Crime is ever changing so it is hard to stick a definition to it. However, UNODC came up with a definition for an Organized Criminal Group as; three or more people not randomly formed, existing for a period of time, and acting in concert with an aim of committing one or more crime(s) punishable by four or more years of incarnation, and in order to obtain, directly or indirectly a financial ...
... middle of paper ...
...own in it...he doesn't want trouble with anybody" (Fitzgerald 48). This separates Gatsby from the other gangsters and organized crime members at the time, they would not care if people feared them or hated them. Not Gatsby, Gatsby always cared about his image.
As we were created with free will, we decide what we want to do with out lives, what we want to accomplish. Many people accomplish the same things as everyone else. What separates people is how they achieve that. Weather they were born into it, like Daisy, worked hard and honestly for it, like Dan Cody, or if they cheated others to rise to the top like Jay Gatsby. During the Jazz Age many people were involved in cheating others through Organized Crime causing it to become a big issue. Organized Crime seemed to be the center of the 1920s and The Great Gatsby did a beautiful job illustrating that to the world.
In the great Gatsby criminal enterprise is visible throughout the novel. One example of this is when Gaby is pulled over by the police officer and the officer apologizes as though he is in the wrong (74 Fitzgerald). Another example is when Mr. Wolfshiem is able to get Gatsby a whole new staff for the purposes of being discreet (172 Fitzgerald). A third and final example is when the employees of jay Gatsby call after he has passed away in order to receive help getting someone out of legal trouble. One is led to believe that they got into by selling alcohol at their drugstore (177
“He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.” (Fitzgerald 48). In chapter 4, Gatsby was riding into town with Nick, and then a police officer came, all Gatsby did was raise a little white paper and the cop apologized for stopping him. This isn’t only about corruption in the 1920’s, but how he was above the law.
There are many views on crime and deviance and many theories to why they occur.
“‘I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now,’” said Jay Gatsby as he tries to avoid his past (50). Gatsby was a man of secrets and dishonesty; he believed that he need not tell anyone about his past or his present because he wanted to show everyone he knew how to live a luxurious life. To the few he did tell about his past, he withheld a respectable amount of information and twisted the truth. Gatsby was very good at keeping everything secret. He figured out a way to persuade people into making certain things occur. He seemed very content in having everything go his way and if it did not, he would try his best to see if he could change what had happened.
Nick Carraway says Gatsby’s estate is “a colossal affair by any standard” (pg. 3). He described it as “a factual imitation of some Hôtel De Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool” (4). At the beginning of the novel, it is unknown how Gatsby has made his fortune but various rumors are going around that he “killed a man” or that he was “a German spy during the war” (29). As we progress more and more though the novel, we find out that Gatsby is not the man we first thought he was. Tom accuses Gatsby of being a part of illegal activities such as buying many drugstores in New York and Chicago so he could sell “grain alcohol over the counter” (89). F. Scott Fitzgerald never explicitly confirms this, but it is the most logical explanation of how Gatsby gained so much wealth in so little time. Was Gatsby so obsessed with making money that he was willing to do criminal deeds in exchange for it? Even though he was insanely affluent, it does not seem like he will ever be truly satisfied with is
During the 1920s, the social scene was gradually changing because of the Prohibition Law; with the influence of prohibition, new waves of modern gangsters were created, and they were primarily involved in such crimes as “bootlegging” and “bank robbery.” The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote the novel of The Great Gatsby, which focuses on the unachievable love affair between Gatsby and Daisy. In this novel, Jay Gatsby confronts death by getting shot on his back by flaming pistol triggered by Mr. Wilson. However, Mr. Wilson is not the only person who is responsible for Gatsby’s death; Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and Tom Buchanan are also accountable.
During Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, it is apparent to be an absurd time for the wealthy. The shallowness of money, riches, and a place in a higher social class were probably the most important components in most lives at that period of time. This is expressed clearly by Fitzgerald, especially through his characters, which include Myrtle Wilson, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and of course, Jay Gatsby. This novel was obviously written to criticize and condemn the ethics of the rich.
...s described in the book he is obviously nothing short of a gangster. All Gatsby wants is connections, connections to money. He needs people to help achieve his goal of the American Dream, he needs to make money, he needs his perfect rich Daisy, and he needs his perfect rich Daisy’s money.
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920 shows an insightful exploration of social class and the inability to change ones social class no matter how hard they attempt to. Fitzgerald was a great author in his ability to take himself out of reality in the 1920’s and write in The Great Gatsby the dangers of social climbing by comparing characters with regards to their social class. The desperation to achieve but ultimately failing the American Dream was explored through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson. I am going to investigate the inability to change one’s social class in 1920s America.
...er and money are so powerful they can control someone. People criticize others who are lower than them but they don’t realize they were once in the bottom also. In the roaring 20’s Fitzgerald shows how the American Dream has deteriorated. The American Dream originally was about bettering yourself, discovery, and finding happiness. This changed for Gatsby instead he wanted money and to be involved in social circles he did not belong in.
The recurring themes of society, class, and self identity can be seen throughout many different writings of the 20th century. Two of these writings include, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Both novels focus on the protagonist's goal of achieving equal rights in their own environment while at the same time trying to figure out who they are in the world. In the early 1900s, when “Their Eyes Were Watching God” takes place, slavery had very recently been abolished (relatively speaking) and the lasting effects of segregation take a toll on Janie, the protagonist. In the Great Gatsby, although Jay Gatsby is white, and thus does not have to deal with the factor of race, he struggles with many different aspects of American Society, mainly the class system and the American Dream. The American dream depicted by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a desire to gain wealth and prosperity. However, at the same time the book does not suggest that wealth equates to success. Even though Gatsby does have material wealth, he is not successful in gaining what he wants to be happy. Despite his material wealth, Gatsby is never united with the love of his life, Daisy. This shows that even though Gatsby has achieved the dream of wealth and prosperity, he has not achieved his final goal. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie too believes in the American Dream, and similarly to Gatsby, it is not a dream of wealth and prosperity. For her, it’s a dream of Freedom in all aspects of life. Both characters however, spend much of their time trying to conform to the rest of the world and essentially be like “everyone” else instead of trying to be distinct individuals. Societal norms of the early 1900s tak...
Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.
Starting at a young age Gatsby strives to become someone of wealth and power, leading him to create a façade of success built by lies in order to reach his unrealistic dream. The way Gatsby’s perceives himself is made clear as Nick explains: “The truth was Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 98). From the beginning Gatsby puts himself beside God, believing he is capable of achieving the impossible and being what he sees as great. Gatsby blinds himself of reality by idolizing this valueless way of life, ultimately guiding him to a corrupt lifestyle. While driving, Nick observes Gatsby curiously: “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces…” (Fitzgerald 65). To fulfill his aspirations Gatsby desires to be seen an admirable and affluent man in society wh...
As Matthew J. Bruccoli noted: “An essential aspect of the American-ness and the historicity of The Great Gatsby is that it is about money. The Land of Opportunity promised the chance for financial success.” (p. xi) The Great Gatsby is indeed about money, but it also explores its aftermath of greed. Fitzgerald detailed the corruption, deceit and illegality of life that soon pursued “the dream”. However, Fitzgerald entitles the reader to the freedom to decide whether or not the dream was ever free of corruption.
Gatsby also displays examples of corruption through his acquisition of wealth. Gatsby's business dealings are not clear. He admits to his neighbor, Nick that he is "in the drug store business" (95). The drug store business during prohibition means that the person is a bootlegger. Bootlegging is a highly profitable business and bootleggers are commonly associates with gangsters who commit harsh and cruel deeds. The society Gatsby wants to be a part of is based on money and power, not faith and love.