Examples Of Bootlegger In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that takes place in the 1920s. The novel is about Gatsby who fell in love with Daisy since they were teens. As time passes, Gatsby ultimate dream is to reunite with Daisy and to get back the romance they lost, but there's one problem Daisy is already married to Tom. In the 1920s, United States of America was going through a huge change. For example, flappers, who were women that were gaining more freedom, started wearing and doing more unladylike things like smoking and they wore short skirts. During the 1920s, the 18th amendment was passed. The 18th amendment was passed because people, especially women, believed that alcohol was the reason why men were so abusive and committed a lot of crimes and therefore the …show more content…
When Tom is trying to figure who Gatsby really is, Tom reveals something about Gatsby. In chapter 7, Tom says, "'I found out what your 'drug-stores' were.' He turned to us and spoke rapidly. 'He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him, and I wasn't far wrong"(118). Tom reveals to everyone including Daisy, that Gatsby is a bootlegger and in the 1920s Al Capone was one of the most famous bootleggers in the 1920s. In the online article "Al Capone - Chicago Crime Boss and Bootlegger", Martin Kelly, who is an American history expert, wrote, "Capone quickly moved to control the sale of all alcohol in Chicago. He created an elaborate distribution system where alcohol was brought from Canada." This shows that Al Capone was a bootlegger because he had to get his alcohol from Canada in order to sell it in the USA. Since Al Capone and Gatsby did the same thing for business they were both