Prohibition and Its Discontents

Characters in The Great Gatsby frequently do what despite it being illegal?

Drink alcohol

When did prohibition begin?

January 16, 1920

What amendment was prohibition apart of?

The 18th Amendment

The 18th Amendment was enforced by what act?

The Volstead Act

What did the Volstead Act do?

Empowered the federal government to arrest and prosecute citizens for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcohol

What was not illegal according to the 18th Amendment?

The consumption or even the purchase of some of the required ingredients to make alcohol at home

What did the Volstead Act reduce?

Alcohol consumption and negative social behavior associated with excessive consumtion

Did the Volstead Act prove effective at stopping the population form drinking?

No, it proved relatively ineffective

What was prohibitions immediate effect on American authors?

It gave them something new to write about

What is a major plot point of The Great Gatsby in relation to prohibition?

Bootlegging

In what other novels is bootlegging a major plot?

Dos Passos’s Manhattan Transfer and Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Thin Man

When was The Thin Man serialized?

As prohibition was ending in 1933

When was The Thin Man made into a major film?

1934

Most of the fiction published on Prohibition depicts the FBI’s G Men as what?

As noble heroes

How are bootleggers depicted in most Hollywood films on prohibition?

As dangerous criminals

Hollywood was under pressure to portray the FBI as noble heroes by who?

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

What was the Hays Code?

A set of strict conservative production standards

When was the Hays Code adopted?

Beginning in 1930

What does The Public Enemy depict?

Tom Powers, a gangster, who works his way up through the criminal underworld only to meet a violent and tragic end

Who plays Tom Powers in The Public Enemy?

James Cagney

How does The Public Enemy follow the Hays Code?

Toms brother Mike, who refused to participate in bootlegging, is the films moral center