Don Marquis, a journalist and author from the early 1900s, once said, “Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into,” (brainyquote.com). Prohibition was exactly that. It was a time in which you were so upset you couldn’t legally have something that many people enjoyed, so it made you long for that item, in this case alcohol, even more. Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel’s article about alcohol consumption during the Prohibition Era is closely related to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. In their article, "Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition”, Miron and Zwiebel do a fantastic job of explaining the Prohibition Era and what exactly happened during that time. Because of all this informative background information, it allows the many readers of Fitzgerald’s well known novel, The Great Gatsby, understand the story as well as the reasoning behind characters actions. Without reading Miron and Zwiebel’s article, readers who have never heard of the Prohibition Era in the Roaring Twenities might bot fully understand and appreciate the detail and accuracy displayed in Fitzgerald’s work. Brendan Livingston’s academic journal, “Murder and the Black Market: Prohibition's Impact on Homicide Rates in American Cities”, talks about crime and the increased homicide rate during this era. These aspects and tragic truths are evident in The Great Gatsby. With these three sources, we are able to understand a little better how and why alcohol consumption did not change during the Prohibition era in America and how alcohol consumption led to the deaths of many.

In Jeffrey A. Miron and Jeffrey Zwiebel’s article "Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition”, the two dive into the topic of prohibition during the 1920’s and how bootlegging and speakeasies rose to such an extreme success. The two explain how prohibition came into effect in 1917, Congress established the Wartime Prohibition, National Prohibition later became established under the 18th Amendment. This law was in effect in the United States of America for about 14 years. In the early stages of this new law, many civilians would agree that it was not successful in regards to lowering alcohol consumption. After several years the law was repealed by the 21st Amendment in the early 30s. Although it made alcohol illegal, it did not eliminate it at all, it made consumers demand for more of it. Because of such high consumer demand, this lead to a new profession called bootlegging. Bootleggers distributed their product by selling it illegally to retail establishments called speakeasies. Law enforcement agencies knew exactly what was going on, but the officers on duty were frequently bribed out of getting bootleggers and speakeasies in any legal trouble by offering large quantities of money from gang members. Due to this, no one respected law enforcement and their authority. During this era, doctors were also able to prescribe “medical liquor” to patients for many unrealistic symptoms. Because of all these loopholes, we can clearly infer how easy it was for one to get their hands on liquor if they so desired. Many, if not all, of us have heard the saying “we always want what we can’t have” and this old saying rings true in this situation. Now that the people aren’t legally allowed to consume alcohol, they will do anything and everything to get it, even if that includes partaking in illegal activity. 

In Brendan Livingston’s academic journal, “Murder and the Black Market: Prohibition's Impact on Homicide Rates in American Cities”, he goes into depth about when Prohibition was put in place within each state and what kind of people were living in the area during that time. Livingston later narrows in on the idea of increased crimes and homicides. He brings up the preconceived idea that if the intoxicated citizens were the ones committing crimes, like homicide, then prohibition would lower crime rates. While yes, that would seem like a logical idea and some may have believed this to be possible, alcohol consumption only decreased during the year following the new law. After the first year, we no longer had as many inebriated criminals but we did have an increase in crime from business owners. Prior to making alcohol illegal, “when faced with a dispute over business matters, choose to resolve the dispute through the least-cost alternative of lawyers or violence,” (Livingston). But now that taking legal action was no longer an option, “only violence or other private sector mediation methods were available to business owners,” (Livingston). From this, we can infer that the business owner’s would hire gang members or people looking for quick, easy money to take care of their problems for them. This strategy did in fact solve the business owner’s problems. With this solution working, those who wanted to consume alcohol, or considered doing so, were more inclined to participate in drinking because they weren’t as worried about the officers enforcing the law. Due to these reasons, the alcohol consumption rate quickly went to how it was before the Prohibition law was established.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the novel is staged in New York during the 1920’s. This was just after the end of World War 1, majority of the people at this time were flooding from the smaller suburbs to the big cities. Their motive was to seek after a new and exciting life style. In the fictional novel, the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, becomes a bootlegger in the midsts of the Prohibition era and this is what later contributes to his extreme wealth. In the novel, Jay Gatsby partners with pharmacies in order to continue selling alcohol to the tons of desperate consumers, illegally. Aside from Gatsby’s secretive, side business, he was constantly hosting grand, extravagant parties where he would also provided illegal substances to all of his guests. In doing this, he establishes a wide network and gains great popularity among members within the community. Gatsby originally came from a very poor family. So for Jay Gatsby personally, dreaming big and taking risks worked in his favor in the long run. With the huge increase in demand for alcohol and the consequences of getting caught for bootlegging being so severe, Gatsby takes a huge risk in order to not only obtain a huge quantity of money, but mainly in hopes of gaining Daisy Buchanan’s love and affection. Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan, accuses Gatsby of selling prohibited substances in the middle of a heated discussion during one of Gatsby’s partiwa. Tom Buchanan then begins to argue with Jay Gatsby that Gatsby’s partner, Meyer, was selling alcohol illegally in their drugstore. Although Gatsby’s biggest secret seemed to be working just perfectly for Mr. Jay Gatsby, it unfortunately had to come to an end. Eventually, Gatsby is killed at the end of the novel by a man by the name of George Wilson. Wilson believed that Gatsby was the one having an affair with his wife, Myrtle Wilson, and that Gatsby killed her because of their affair and his fear of George finding out. Myrtle Wilson was in fact killed by Gatsby’s car, but George Wilson does not know that Daisy Buchanan was the one driving the car. Not everyone, unfortunately, has a happy ending and Gatsby’s life just seemed too good to be true.

The time period of Fitzgerald’s novel was crucial to Gatsby’s character. Without the Prohibition era, Jay Gatsby would have never become the person he turned out to be and he would not have been financially capable of hosting such lavish parties in order to gain Daisy’s attention. Gatsby gets away with selling illegal substances because he keeps his personal life very private and often lies to keep his identity and reputation. This is important in making it big in such a secret, under cover occupation. Jay takes the opportunity to establish a bunch of drugstores in hopes of achieving success. While yes, it leads to a great deal of money for Mr. Gatsby, it also leads to his death. Miron and Zwiebel’s journal, along with Livingston’s, truly help us dig deep and fully understand the context of Fitzgerald’s thrilling and exciting novel. It reveals to the audience how so many people and business owner’s got away with their illegal activity by finding so many loopholes in the law against alcohol consumption and how easy it was to avoid getting in any sort of trouble. Livingston’s article also exposes the readers to the sad reality of this law and the negative effects it had on others, like Gatsby himself, the one people thought had it all figured out. Although Fitzgerald’s novel is fictional, it is inspired by and based off of facts and historical context. The Prohibition era effected and heavily influenced Gatsby and his character and is a very beloved book in our society today.
