1. We can identify organized crime by identifying the suckers and the sharpies and wise-guys. If we find those dynamics within a system, we can pay closer attention to the wise-guys and sharpies.
2. These labels are definitely not limited to organized crime. They can apply to anything spanning Girl Scouts to prisons. They just serve as words to describe the naive people, the people who take advantage of others, and the people who create their own successes. 4.. Poor Nick, ever the sucker. Gatsby would be the sharpie, as he only takes advantage of situations, and doesn't create them. Wolfsheim would be the wise-guy, as he creates Gatsby, who gives him more business.
3. Hamilton could be all three at different points in the show. He is a sucker because he is taken advantage of, but he is also a sharpie for his ability to rise through the ranks, and he is a wise-guy because he creates several opportunities for himself.
4. I don't think the American Dream is corruptible, because no matter how you go about it, you are still achieving the American Dream of working hard to get money (even if some sharpies hardly worked at all). The values behind the dream are easily introverted, but the dream itself is not.

Another example of how something can be perverted. An entrepreneur ideal can also be used as an explanation for organized crime.

This relates back to O'Kane's argument about immigrants being forced to take the crooked ladder.

1. Keyterms include: "newcomer" "mobility" "traditional" "assimilation" "ethnic" "established Americans"
2. O'Kane argues that the assimilation techniques thought to help ethnic immigrants "make it" were hardly ever successful, which is why the crooked ladder looked more enticing.
3. Ethnic immigrants tried to follow the path of "traditional or established Americans" by mastering the English language, working hard, and trying to establish themselves as true Americans. These "established and traditional Americans" were the viewers, and when they thought an immigrant had proved that "they are people just like us," they allowed them to have mobility.
4. Discrimination was the key obstacle, which was done by those who considered themselves established Americans. They used their privilege to do harm towards the ethnic immigrants through legislation and riots and violence.
5. They pursued the crooked ladder because they were pushed towards it by discrimination, hostility, and violence. They became gangsters or involved in organized crime. Gatsby comes to mind, even though he was not an immigrant.

Typical America. This makes me think of illegal immigration; because it is so difficult to actually obtain citizenship, immigrants come here unlawfully, because that is their only option. Not necessarily forced, but maybe pushed towards the crooked ladder.

When I think about the Gilded Age (between the 1860ish and 1890), which was brimming with corruption, this is almost ironic. Ethnic minorities were expected to act as traditional Americans while the these "traditional Americans" were busy rigging the voting booths and building Robber Barron personas

James Gats becomes Jay Gatsby.

This makes me think of Leo Braudy's two selves. Maybe FSF took Arnold Rothstein and split him up into the story and the man behind the story. Wolfsheim would then be the perceived Rothstein by the public (not by those who knew him), and Gatsby would be, well, the "something of a Gatsby to those who knew him." FSF took the story of Rothstein and created Wolfsheim, and then he took the accounts of those who knew him and created Gatsby. This could also explain how it was Wolfsheim who fixed the World Series (which was what Rothstein was most famous for), but it was Gatsby who was really shown to have dealt in bonds (which was Rothstein's most lucrative venture). Just a thought. If we want to delve into Nick as an unreliable narrator, we could even start to play with the idea that they definitely went into an underground area where they presumably drank quite a bit, and Nick completely made up "Meyer Wolfsheim" because he couldn't accept Gatsby as a criminal? That also compounds when you think of how Nick is definitely in love with Gatsby. Wow, I just fell into a hole.

This just screams of Gatsby's angst. Especially after watching the most recent adaptation of the novel, in the scene where Gatsby confront Tom and Tom practically says these very words to him.

This, to me, is more compelling evidence of why Gatsby COULD be a gangster. These are people that are smart and ambitious, and not necessarily inherently evil and devil-eyed. Gatsby being too-romantic and too-idealistic just point to him having the drive that might push him towards organized crime in order to achieve the success he aches for. I disagree with him being naive as well, he spent five years traveling with a probable-smuggler around the world, learning all about crime and how to manage it.