The Effects Of Alcoholism In The Great Gatsby

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“Lanahan told Stahl Gordie lay passed out on a couch for nine hours, until someone called 911 for help. ‘Gordie died alone in an empty room with his friends surrounding him. And it 's just very preventable. Just inexcusable,’ Lanahan told Stahl. Gordie died of alcohol poisoning.” (CBSNews) According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, college drinking occur to four out of five college students. More than 90 percent of the students who drink also do binge drinking. It is “a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration levels to 0.08 g/dL. This is around 4 drinks for women and 5 for men in about 2 hours.” Not just death but also assault, sexual abuse, academic problems, drunk driving and suicide attempts happen due to underage drinking in college communities. (NIAAA)
From The Great Gatsby, a novel known for reflecting the Jazz age, we can perceive how rich people was still throwing lavish parties illegally with “the yellow cocktail music”. It was extremely common is it to see “one of the gypsies, in trembling opal, seizes a cocktail out of the air.” (Fitzgerald) The prohibition ended as a result of failing to maintain sobriety and high amount of financial expenditure. (History.com) This proves how impractical it is to limit alcoholic beverages. Ever since, the drinking age fluctuated from 21 to 18. Until the 1984 National Drinking Age Act, signed by president Ronald Reagan, all states were asked to raise the drinking age to 21 or else the state will receive a 10 percent cut for their highway funds. (U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public

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