how did gatsby get all his money
Do they say how in the book because they didnt in the movie. Unless the pharmaceutical thing was true. If so what does that mean, drug dealer or did he really own drug stores?
shareDo they say how in the book because they didnt in the movie. Unless the pharmaceutical thing was true. If so what does that mean, drug dealer or did he really own drug stores?
share[deleted]
Considering the size of the fortune he amassed in a short time, you can rule out any legitimate business.
In the book, Tom says he was bootlegging out of his "drug stores," and was also involved in gambling. He worked with Meyer Wolfsheim. Another man Tom knew had dealings with them and wound up spending a little time in jail. According to that man, Gatsby was involved in something else too awful to even talk about - I'd guess drugs or perhaps even extortion or murder. Nick speaks to a man on the phone, who thinks Nick is Gatsby, who talks about an associate of theirs who is in jail for trying to sell fake bonds. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is this kind of activity that lead to the Great Depression. In short, Gatsby made his fortune in organized crime.
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he got his money by bootlegging, which included selling alcohol during prohibition, which made alcohol super expensive. this explains why he got rich quick.
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He made the majority of his money bootlegging and being a front man for the Jewish mafia (whatever being a front man entails and it isn't good).
There was indications that Gatsby and fellow gangsters were moving into securities fraud.
Gatsby to put it bluntly was a mafia gangster.
he was all about the deal.
His name...was Julio Iglesias!
Great Donald Trump reference! They say every great fortune was founded on a crime. In the end, you could say that Fitzgerald saw very little difference between the "legitimate rich" and the "criminal rich."
shareIt was the ambiguity and the potential for his wealth to have been from ill gotten means that provides a contrast to Gatsby's romanticism. Hence, one of the many reasons this is consider in the pantheon of great American novels.
shareWolfsheim would be "loosely" based on Arnold Rothstein, a fixer in the old-time gangsterism of the 1910s-1920s-early1930s.
Rothstein is alleged (and pretty much acknowledged) to be the impetus behind the fixing of the 1919 World Series. He was also involved in other gambling rackets, as well as bootlegging, extortion, prostitution, etc., of that time. His "ilk" were eventually supplanted by the "new" regime of Meyer Lansky, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, etc.
Rothstein was killed in a gambling dispute in the 1920s.
Gatsby would probably have been one of his "henchman" early on, eventually being deemed worthy of moving up (i.e., managing aspects of the rackets). Prohibition being in effect at the time would have me guessing that bootlegging was the bulk of Gatsby's fortune, but not exclusively. There were gangsters at that time who frowned on prostitution, while others were against the burgeoning drug trade. Others, still, would have avoided anything like securities or counterfeiting.
Deep down, though, they'll make it any way they can. They get past the "looked-down-on" rackets by not doing the actual work, but profiting from it nonetheless. One way is by not "dealing" in drugs, but forcing those who do to come to the "mob" to finance, then charge them at loan-shark-type rates, as well as paying "tribute" for the privilege of operating. Ditto with the other rackets.
Sounds like some of Gatsby's/Wolfsheim's associates were getting into the securities fraud angle. This might have explained why Gatsby quasi-approached Nick.
Good take
The Jews ran most of the mobs until Prohibition and the stock market crash when the Italians got bigger and better