In chapter one, when Nick has dinner with Tom, Daisy, and Jordan, he mentions "four cocktails just in from the pantry," and later, his second glass of "corky but rather impressive claret."
In chapter two, Nick, Tom, Myrtle, and the McKees drink "whiskey from a locked bureau drawer" that Tom produces. Nick wonders, as he tries to read a book, if "the whiskey distorted things," and notes that "after the first drink," he and Mrs. Wilson call each other by their first names. Later in the afternoon, a "bottle of whiskey—a second one—" is passed around.
In chapter three, Nick describes the bar at Gatsby 's party as being stocked with "gins and liquors" and "cordials." A guest "seizes a cocktail out of the air," and Nick makes his way to a "cocktail table" and is beginning to "get roaring drunk" when he spots Jordan. As they...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
sit down, "a tray of cocktails" is brought by a waiter. When they meetOwl Eyes in the library, he confesses to having "been drunk for a week." As the party continues, "champagne was served in glasses bigger than finger-bowls." Nick says that he has "taken two finger-bowls of champagne." A red-haired woman who "had drunk a quantity of champagne" falls asleep.
Chapter four begins with the rumor that Gatsby is a bootlegger, and "between his cocktails and his flowers," a woman repeats this claim. Ripley Snell has had his hand run over because he is passed out drunk on Gatsby's driveway. When Gatsby and Nick meet Wolfsheim for lunch, the waiter offers "highballs," and Gatsby agrees to "highballs." Later that day, Jordan describes Daisy being "drunk as a monkey" on "Sauterne" after receiving a letter from Gatsby on the eve of her wedding to Tom.
In chapter five, when Gatsby takes Nick and Daisy on a house tour, they "drank a glass of some Chartreuse."
In chapter six, the flashback to Gatsby's years with Dan Cody mentions Cody's drinking problem and a time of "gay parties" where "women used to rub champagne into his hair." When Tom Buchanan turns up at Gatsby's on horseback, Tom offers him "a little champagne," and the woman with him drinks "two highballs." At the party Gatsby throws for Daisy's benefit, there is "the same profusion of champagne," and Miss Baedecker becomes drunk. She is said to get that way "when she's had five or six cocktails."
In the climactic seventh chapter, "four gin rickeys" are offered at the Buchanans' house prior to lunch, and they drink "cold ale" with lunch. As lunch ends, Tom drinks "the last of his glass of ale." As they head into NYC, Tom goes back inside for "some whiskey" to bring with them. At the Plaza Hotel the plan is to use it to make a "mint julep." Tom unrolls the quart "bottle of whiskey" from the towel he has wrapped it in. Daisy asks for "some ice for the mint julep." Later, Daisy tells Tom to "open the whiskey" so she can make him "a mint julep." When they leave, Tom offers Nick and Jordan some of the "unopened bottle of whiskey." At the end of the chapter, Daisy and Tom sit at the table in their pantry with "two bottles of ale," but Nick notices that they don't touch the ale as they converse.
In the final two chapters, there are no references to alcohol.
Listing all of the quotes involving alcohol in this novel is going to be tough. The word "alcohol" is used once in the book.
He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side−street drug−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, and I wasn't far wrong.
The reason that the word is used so rarely in the text is because the book is set during the time of prohibition. Much of the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol is illegal, so people don't necessarily talk about it openly. They still talk about alcohol, but the vocabulary veils it. For example, people wouldn't go to a "bar" to consume illegal alcohol. They would go to a "speak easy."
Of course I don't want to make it seem that specific talk about alcohol is completely absent from the book. The beginning of chapter 3 has several good quotes about the supply of alcohol as well as the consumption. Nick is describing Gatsby's house and the parties that he throws there. He talks about Gatsby's "bar" and lists out specific types of hard liquor.
In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another.
[...]
The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names.
Chapter 7 has a quote that shows Tom carrying some drinks with gin in them.
"Good−by, sweetheart!" With a reluctant backward glance the well−disciplined child held to her nurse's hand and was pulled out the door, just as Tom came back, preceding four gin rickeys that clicked full of ice.
Gatsby took up his drink.
In chapter 2, Tom brings out a bottle of whiskey.
Meanwhile Tom brought out a bottle of whiskey from a locked bureau door.
Whiskey is then mentioned 6 more times over the course of the novel. 2 of the remaining 6 are in chapter 2, and the rest are in chapter 7. For example, this one is in chapter 7.
"Open the whiskey, Tom," she ordered, "and I'll make you a mint julep. Then you won't seem so stupid to yourself. . . . look at the mint!"
Finally, the other two words that alert readers to the presence of alcohol are "bootlegger" and "cocktail." A cocktail is a mixed drink in which one of the ingredients is some kind of alcohol. A bootlegger is somebody that moves and sells alcohol illegally, and people suspect that Gatsby made all of his money doing this.
"He's a bootlegger," said the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers.