Jay Gatsby, Justice Douglas, and the Significance of Class in American Society

Abstract

This chapter juxtaposes the tales of two ambitious men, both born in the American West, who moved east to New York in an effort to make names for themselves during the 1920s. The ambitions of Jay Gatsby—as recounted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—and William O. Douglas—as recounted in his autobiography, Go East, Young Man—led the two men in very different directions. Where Gatsby turned to lawlessness, Douglas instead turned to law. The distinct journeys and distinct fates that Gatsby and Douglas experience yield insight into the significance of class within the United States, and also offer significant complications of the American Dream.