The use of alcohol

I noticed that alcohol comes along frequently in Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald stories. Jay Gatsby hosted big parties where people would get drunk, and swarm to the party, even though no one really knew the host. Hemingway uses alcohol in stories like My Old Man, where Joe's father starts to drink more and more as he gets older and throws races more often. Both The Great Gatsby and In Our Time feature quite sad endings. Seems to me as if both offers portrayed their time very well in their books.