Theme Of Crime In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream has been a part of United States history since the country began. One can presume that the saying “all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” from Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” is the first known American Dream (US 1776). Though this document says “all men”, this phrase did not include black people or white women. In 1776, it only meant the free, property-owning males that lived in America. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a famous literary piece that takes place in the 1920s in Long Island, which is the modern day New York. This novel gives the perfect impression on how the American Dream was obtained …show more content…

Even when old money makes things go awry, society still accepts them because they received their fortune morally. The majority of people who are of new money earned their money by bootlegging alcohol. The Great Gatsby takes place in the Prohibition Era. The government passed the Prohibition Act in 1919 banning alcohol to promote an ethical way of living. Additionally, the act was passed to have less crime in the United States. The concept that crime will decrease by stopping alcohol consumption backfired considering organized crime stems from this law. Al Capone is a great example of a person of new money who was associated with organized crime. Capone was an active member of the mafia in Chicago during the Prohibition Era. He viewed prohibition as an advantage to making a tremendous amount of money. Capone is comparable to Meyer Wolfsheim, the gambler that fixed the 1919 World Series (Fitzgerald 73). Like Wolfsheim, Al Capone was never convicted of the crimes that he allegedly took part in. In the end, Capone was arrested for tax evasion. Gatsby is very similar to Al Capone in a sense. The novel never specifically states where Gatsby got his money though it is implied that he is in the bootlegging business and that is how he became rich in a short period of time; with the help of the inherited twenty-five thousand dollars from Dan Cody, the man changed Jay Gatz and created Jay Gatsby (Fitzgerald 100). However, both men came from a low-income family and despite not making their money the noble way, they made a name for themselves and everyone knew who they

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