Bootlegging In The Great Gatsby

During the 1920s prohibition was at its peak. Many bootleggers took advantage of the alcoholics and partiers by selling them liquor; a bootlegger is someone who distributes alcohol illegally. Jay Gatsby, the main character in The Great Gatsby, was a poor farm boy from South Dakota and according to his father he was destined to get rich. How Jay got rich is mystery throughout the book due to the fact that a countless amount of rumors were said about him such as, he was a German spy, he killed a man and he was a nephew to Von Hindenburg. One can kind of put together that Gatsby made his money is illegally, but it’s not till the end of the book that you realize he was a bootlegger. The steps Gatsby made to get rich is pretty simple, but still none the less very intriguing. He started off in the Marines and met the love of his life Daisy. Daisy became tired of waiting on Gatsby to strike it rich so she runs off and marries the very wealthy Tom Buchanan. Finally Gatsby catches a break and the rest is history. While Gatsby went …show more content…
If you knew the right people and could get your hands on a lot of booze you could make a ton of money. Gatsby had those connections. Bootlegging was so successful because so few people had the connections, so they could charge any price that they want. People were still going to drink no matter what, people drank recreationally and some were alcoholics. Parties were also constantly thrown during this era because of the culture change and to rebel against prohibition, so bootleggers were never sort of consumers. According to my sources Americans actually drank more during prohibition, “Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased” (Thornton 1). The best way to make money in this time period was selling alcohol. There was a huge underground market for it and Gatsby took full advantage of all the