Gatsby accumulated his wealth from bootlegging alcohol, which at the time of the novel was extremely illegal. Illegal acts often have greater reward then honest work, but with illegal acts there are severe consequences that usually proceed. "He and Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side street drugs stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him." (Fitzgerald, 127) The concept of The American Dream can not be held acceptable when people find wealth in criminal acts like Gatsby did. The ideology is for hard working and honest people who have a dream to be successful and wealthy. Condoning criminal behavior would be a horrendous and immoral thing to do because it teaches society that we can do whatever we want as long as we gain some materialistic goods from it. In the process of all this criminal behavior Gatsby has kept alcohol on the streets for people to consume, which in turn has kept alcoholism alive and increasing when at the time the governments were trying to prevent and abolish. He was preying on the weaknesses of people and their addiction.
The main and true reason for Gatsby's love of