His fortune was built off of lies that were bound to collapse at any given moment. His convoluted bootlegging proves his unsuccessful attainment of East, and represents why Gatsby fails in being a wealthy, yet honorable man, that Daisy would leave her husband for. Gatsby probably avoids prosecution for bootlegging and bond rigging by distributing his resources on a quid pro quo basis, and rather callously applies that principle to his personal life as well. Once he did the police commissioner a favor; now he can break the speed limit. (Donaldson) Gatsby has broken laws and done business with gangsters to get fabulously wealthy in the quickest possible way. He has not done this in order to climb socially so that someday, after time has sanitized his fortune, his son might marry Tom and Daisy 's daughter. Rather, he got rich quick out of a sense of urgency and desperation, and crazy hopefulness, out of refusing to get over a broken heart and give up the love of his life. (Voegeli) When originally probed on his business partaking Gatsby said, "Oh, I 've been in several things...I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I 'm not in either one now." (90) However, after obvious speculation the reader soon discovers he 's involved in affairs to be as illegal. Gatsby 's illicit business association (indeed, his friendship) with immigrant gangster Meyer Wolfsheim compromises the ethics of our hero 's self-made success while undermining the stability of white ethnic difference. His enterprising efforts among shady foreigners stages the nation 's growing suspicion of immigrants after World War I. (Decker) Gatsby 's upward struggle is inspired by traditional purveyors of middle-class success, such as Ben Franklin and Horatio Alger Jr.. However, another less virtuous narrative of Gatsby 's self-making unfolds, which connects our hero 's business schemes to the tainted hand of immigrant
His fortune was built off of lies that were bound to collapse at any given moment. His convoluted bootlegging proves his unsuccessful attainment of East, and represents why Gatsby fails in being a wealthy, yet honorable man, that Daisy would leave her husband for. Gatsby probably avoids prosecution for bootlegging and bond rigging by distributing his resources on a quid pro quo basis, and rather callously applies that principle to his personal life as well. Once he did the police commissioner a favor; now he can break the speed limit. (Donaldson) Gatsby has broken laws and done business with gangsters to get fabulously wealthy in the quickest possible way. He has not done this in order to climb socially so that someday, after time has sanitized his fortune, his son might marry Tom and Daisy 's daughter. Rather, he got rich quick out of a sense of urgency and desperation, and crazy hopefulness, out of refusing to get over a broken heart and give up the love of his life. (Voegeli) When originally probed on his business partaking Gatsby said, "Oh, I 've been in several things...I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I 'm not in either one now." (90) However, after obvious speculation the reader soon discovers he 's involved in affairs to be as illegal. Gatsby 's illicit business association (indeed, his friendship) with immigrant gangster Meyer Wolfsheim compromises the ethics of our hero 's self-made success while undermining the stability of white ethnic difference. His enterprising efforts among shady foreigners stages the nation 's growing suspicion of immigrants after World War I. (Decker) Gatsby 's upward struggle is inspired by traditional purveyors of middle-class success, such as Ben Franklin and Horatio Alger Jr.. However, another less virtuous narrative of Gatsby 's self-making unfolds, which connects our hero 's business schemes to the tainted hand of immigrant