What Would Jordan and Jay Gatsby Most Likely be Doing?
When Jay Gatsby wasn’t with his friends or at one of his parties, he would probably be bootlegging alcohol and other illegal goods. National prohibition of alcohol 1920-1933 or the "Noble Experiment" was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure. Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it quickly increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became "organized," the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point, and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition.
Gatsby admits to being involved in illegal activity and the biggest and most well known illegal act in the 1920's was the bootlegging of illegal alcohol.
When Jordan wasn’t with Nick, or any of her other friends or at a party, she would most likely be found at the golf course. Women did not always find life as easy as it is today. The Women's Rights Movement, changed society, into what we know it to be today. Women around the world were considered to be inferior to men, but over many years of hard work and devotion, women finally gained equality. Women were a man's property, were not considered a "person," could not hold jobs, and were not allowed to vote. In earlier years, women were inferior to men in many ways. Women and their children seemed to be owned by the father and husband. Women did not have any property rights and once she was married, she was no longer allowed to own land, could not keep the money she earned for herself and was not allowed the care and control of her children. A man was able to sell the family farm, take all the money for himself, and leave his wife and children behind with nothing. Also, if a man died without writing a will, his wife was not able to inherit anything, including any of the money she may have earned herself, or the land she had owned before her marriage. The Women's Rights Movement, helped women throughout the country by passing laws stating that women could in fact own part of her husbands estate. In Alberta, the Dower Act was passed in the early 1900's, giving women the legal right to one third of her husband’s estate during his life, and after his death. In 1922, married women in Alberta were finally given the right to own property in her own name. Emily Murphy was the woman behind these new laws in Alberta. The 1920's were a giant stepping stone for women. This right to own property, made women everywhere know that they were able to do things without a husband to depend on. It gave them strength, which women still find today.
Woman were starting to get more of a role in society in the early 1920's and Jordan being a pro-golfer shows this.
Quick References
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=1017
http://womenincongress.house.gov/essays/essay1/rights-movement.html
By: Matt Stone