Mafia/Gangsters

In The Great Gatsby Meyer WolfShiem was a mafia member who was Gatsby "friend". Not much was known about Wolfshiem work with the mafia except for he corrupted his dream as well as aided in destroying Gatsby's dream. This corrupts the American dream because working with characters from the mafia and then joining the mafia is illegal and you really arent working for the dream it's mainly given so what did you accomplish?

The mafia was around for along time before the 1920's and existed in mostly all of the cities in the U.S. as well as other countries but the 1920's was the most noteworthy because of prohibition. The mafia got involved in bootlegging, this was a risky business but it earned them about $100 million a year but whenever this much money was involved greed, deception , and murder took over. One of the most famous mobster, Al Capone was a bootlegger and made millions off the business. As well as other illegal activities he was so good at what he did (covering his tracks) that he only ended up in prison for tax evasion but then died several years after being released.

http://writinghood.com/literature/national/corruption-of-the-american-dream-in/

http://west.iccsd.k12.ia.us/library/WQR&J/era/1920s.htm