Gangsters Of That Time

Just as Daisy left Gatsby empty in the end of The Great Gatsby, so did Fitzgerald to the readers with his last line, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The Great Gatsby is set during the 1920s in New York City. The book is narrated by a middle-aged man named Nick. Nick meets a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who is also his neighbor. Gatsby soon reveals to Nick that he is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy. Daisy is married to Nick’s friend from college named Tom. Tom is having an affair on Daisy and she knows it, but after Nick arranges a small get together for Daisy and Gatsby, they start sneaking around together. Soon enough Tom finds out that Daisy “loves” Gatsby. Gatsby and Tom start arguing over who Daisy truly loves. Daisy ends up leaving with Gatsby and on the way home she runs over Tom’s mistress Myrtle. Myrtle’s husband Wilson thinks Gatsby killed his wife, so he goes and shoots Gatsby while Gatsby is in his pool.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, a fiction book, Fitzgerald illustrates many crimes, big and small, because the 1920s was the prime time for crime. Since Fitzgerald was from upstate and was in the prime of his life during the 1920s, he was able to see and read many things that influenced what he wrote in The Great Gatsby. For example, prohibition was going on during the prime of his life. In the 20’s the government banned all alcohol, but the alcohol ban did not just come out of nowhere, states started banning alcohol since 1919. Only a few of the pubs and bars actually got shutdown. Bootleggers were very secretive with what they did. They sold their alcohol out of common places like a drug store. In the book, that is how Gatsby sold all of his alcohol. Wolfsheim, his partner, and Gatsby had opened many drug stores opened and drugs were not the only thing they were selling. Since WWI had come to an end and many families were moving to the big cities there was a bigger need for alcohol supply.

Soon enough, too many people were starting to depend on alcohol during this age. Liquor was ruining the lives of many men. Instead of taking care of their families and going to work, men started drinking and getting drunk all of the time. Alcohol took the place of providing for their families. The government saw that alcohol was doing more harm than good, so they created the prohibition. The prohibition made everything even worse than it already was. Bootlegging businesses popped up everywhere all around the city. For example, Jay Gatsby, a character from The Great Gatsby, represents wealth from the 1920s. He throws large parties with lots of liquor and he had to get it from somewhere. He got his money by going into business with Wolfsheim. They opened drug stores and sold not just alcohol but other illegal dealings out of them. Nick and Gatsby also go to an underground bar where alcohol is sold illegally.

The underground bar is where they met Wolfsheim. Considering they met Wolfsheim there it could mean the place they were at was not just an illegal bootlegging place but also a place where other illegal things went down. It did not share a lot of details of what the underground place looked like but you can infer that there were underworld dealings going on down there. There were also many illegal things going on in the background of The Great Gatsby. Although, after the ban of alcohol happened more criminal activity started to happen. Gang violence and other specific crimes did increase with the ban, and so did murder rates but murder rates did not increase a great amount like some people assume (Owens).

The gangsters of the time manipulated anyone they could and tried to get everything they could out of them. They loved causing people fear as “U.S. History 2”says in the text, “Gangsters thrived off of the fear they caused.” Scarface was a famous gangster from the 1920s. He was in a gang since he was a child, and when he got older he then became a leader of his own gang in Chicago. Another man with the name of Dutch Shultz was a gangster from New York. He owned a saloon and when people did not buy as much as he wanted them to, he would torture them. He was soon gunned down by another gang. Last but not least, Charles Luciano was considered one of the most dastardly villains. He was foreign but moved to New York when he was young. He did not know any english when he first got there. At a young age, kids paid him to protect them, but when the kids did not pay him enough he would beat them up and get the rest of their money. When he grew up he ended up being apart of the “Big Six”. He was then sent home from all the criminal activity he was doing.

A few months after he returned back to where he was from he died. (US History 2). Almost all of the main characters in The Great Gatsby could be considered as gangsters. Again, Wolfsheim is who pops out the most to be a gangster. Wolfsheim compares most to Shultz and Luciano. Wolfsheim was known for protecting people for money and threatening people to do what he wants for money. Daisy did a very criminal thing at the end of the book and let Gatsby take the fall for it. Criminals normally only care about themselves, and that is just how Daisy behaved. She did not care who got hurt along the way as long as she was happy, safe, and got what she wanted. In conclusion, prohibition caused more crime than what was already happening during the 1920s. There are more crimes than just the prohibition during the 1920s. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy does a hit a run in Gatsby’s car. Daisy and Gatsby left Tom’s loft after Gatsby and Tom had a heated argument.

Daisy was considered an outstanding woman during her time since she married into money and had some money of her own. Since she was an outstanding woman she was able to get away with more. For example, Daisy was driving and on their way home she hits Myrtle with the car and kills her instantly, but Daisy keeps on driving like nothing ever happened. Because of those sequence of events Gatsby ends up taking the fall for her crime and gets shot because of it. There were many thugs during the 1920s. When some men did not get their way or what they wanted, they would harm and maybe even kill a person over it. The Great Gatsby is a fiction book written by Scott Fitzgerald. The book is narrated by a middle aged man named Nick. Nick meets a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who is also his neighbor. Gatsby soon reveals to Nick that he is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy. Daisy is married to Nick’s friend from college named Tom.

Tom is having an affair on Daisy and she knows it, but after Nick arranges a small get together for Daisy and Gatsby, they start sneaking around together. Soon enough Tom finds out that Daisy “loves” Gatsby. Gatsby and Tom start arguing over who Daisy truly loves. Daisy ends up leaving with Gatsby and on the way home she runs over Tom’s mistress Myrtle. Myrtle’s husband Wilson thinks Gatsby killed his wife, so he goes and shoots Gatsby while Gatsby is in his pool. In The Great Gatsby, there are many underworld dealings going on in the background of the book. One of the most obvious crimes is when Daisy runs Myrtle over. In the novel it hints that Wolfsheim, one of Gatsby’s friends, does criminal things. The novel says he does things such as “getting rid” of things for people when they hire him to do so. There is a considerable increase in crime rate from the 1910’s to the 1920’s, and Fitzgerald illustrates that into his book.

In the article “Gangsters of the 1920’s”, it talks about three main criminals of the 1920’s. The gangsters manipulated anyone they could and tried to get everything they could out of them. They loved causing people fear as it says in the text, “Gangsters thrived off of the fear they caused.” The first gangster they talked about was given the nickname Scarface. He is the most famous out of the three. He was in a gang since he was a child, and when he got older, he then became a the leader of his own gang in Chicago. The next gangster is Dutch Shultz from New York. He owned a saloon and when people did not buy as much as he wanted them to, he would torture them. He was soon gunned down by another gang. The last gangster is Charles Luciano. He was foreign but moved to New York when he was young. He did not know any english when he first got there. Kids paid him to protect them, but when the kids did not pay him enough he would beat them up and get the rest of their money.

When he grew up he ended up being apart of the “Big Six”. He was then sent home from all the criminal activity he was doing and died. Almost all of the main characters in The Great Gatsby could be considered as gangsters. Again, Wolfsheim is who pops out the most to be a gangster. Wolfsheim compares most to Shultz and Luciano. Wolfsheim was known for protecting people for money and threatening people to do what he wants for money. Daisy did a very criminal thing at the end of the book and let Gatsby take the fall for it. Criminals normally only care about themselves, and that is just how Daisy behaved.

She did not care who got hurt as long as she was happy and safe. In the passage, “The (Not So) Roaring ‘20s”, it talks about the alcohol ban during that time. It says that illegal things increase the rate of murder. For example, in the 20’s the government banned all alcohol, and after that happened more criminal activity started to happen. People even opened secret bars underground. Gang violence and other specific crimes did increase with the ban, and so did murder rates but it did not increase a great amount like some people assume. The alcohol ban did not just come out of nowhere, states starting banning alcohol since 1919 and all the bans did not get lifted until 1961. In conclusion, the passage states how illegal activities could really drive crime rates up. In The Great Gatsby, Nick and Gatsby go to an underground bar.

The underground bar is where they met Wolfsheim. Considering they met Wolfsheim there it could mean the place they were at was an illegal bootlegging place. It did not share a lot of details of what the underground place looked like but you can infer that there were underworld dealings going on down there. There were also illegal things going on in the background of The Great Gatsby. The Roaring Twenties, also considered the Jazz Age was considered “The gaudiest spree in history. The prohibition was happening during this time. WWI had come to an end and many families were moving to the big cities.

Too many people were starting to depend on alcohol during this age. Liquor was ruining the lives of many men. Instead of taking care of their families and going to work men started drinking and getting drunk all of the time. Prohibition did the opposite of its purpose. Bootlegging businesses popped up everywhere all around the city. Jay Gatsby, a character from The Great Gatsby, represents wealth from the 1920s. He throws large parties with lots of liquor and he had to get it from somewhere. He got his money by going into business with Wolfsheim. They opened drug stores and sold not just alcohol but other illegal dealings out of them. In conclusion, prohibition caused more crime than what was already happening. You did not know much about Gatsby. You could never tell when he was telling the truth or not. He did many illegal things but his partner Wolsheim had a hand to play in it too.

Fitzgerald played around with the idea that Gatsby was a bootlegger, he never came out and said it. In the book it talks about Wolsheim and Gatsby doing underworld dealing. When Tom and Gatsby were arguing Tom accuses him of selling alcohol out of Gatsby’s drug stores. In the end Gatsby ended up being one of the better men. There are more varieties of liquors now than ever. In conclusion, crime was a big problem during the 1920s. The prohibition did play a big hand in it. There were also many gangsters during that time. The 1920s is one of the times where murder rates were at its highest. The Great Gatsby shows many examples throughout the book of crimes committed during the 1920s.