Amanda M.

Labrado
Eng 6
Fraser
2/19/10
Clinton, Gates, and Gatsby

In 1998, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton were involved in separate and

controversial legal issues: Bill Gates’ company, Microsoft, was charged with being

an illegal monopoly, and Bill Clinton “did not have sexual relations with that

woman” (Monica Lewinsky). About 70 years earlier, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott

Fitzgerald was published, and a couple years after that the main character, Jay

Gatsby, became an American Icon. “A Tale of Two Bills”, written at the time of the

“Bill” controversies, illustrates the concept of Gatsby’s life story as an American

icon; it was an article about the lives of Clinton & Gates before their misconducts,

and how their current situations reflect the “Great Gatsby” idea of success paving

the road to demise. In the article’s conclusion, the author mentions that “The Great

Gatsby” ends with Jay achieving the American dream, but his success has also led

him to his downfall, and the author subsequently argues that both men’s lives,

Gates’ and Clinton’s, are similar to Gatsby’s because they have achieved the

American dream, but we don’t yet know if their flaws, as a result of their

successfulness, will “pull them down” like Jay Gatsby’s did.

Bill Clinton was the 2nd President to be impeached. His career in politics

began when he was 16; he was elected senator for the Boy’s Nation. Clinton had

come from a small town in Arkansas, and rose to prominence at 32, when he

became the youngest governor in the U.S... Previously, Clinton attended Oxford

College for a short time, like Gatsby, and Yale Law School, where he received a

Rhodes scholarship. Clinton’s “feel for the pain of others”, and his deceitfulness led

to his disgrace.
 Clinton, a married man, began an affair with Monica Lewinsky in November of

1995. Lewinsky was an unpaid intern who was working for the Chief of Staff at the

time; however, she later transferred to the Office of Legislative Affairs. Clinton

came to his ruin when Lewinsky’s friend, Linda Trapp, a self declared Clinton hater,

provided a detective tapes of conversations between herself and Lewinsky,

concerning Lewinsky’s affair with Clinton. In court, while in office, Clinton lied about

the affair and was convicted of committing perjury and other misconducts which

caused his impeachment.

In the Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby lives a similar series of events. “Jay” meets

Daisy 3 years before her marriage and they have an affair, but then Jay goes to war,

and when he returns, he is devastated to find out 5 years after their affair, Daisy is

changed and is in love with another man. Even though Daisy is now married, Jay

and her have a secret affair and when her husband finds out a series of events

takes place that bring Gatsby to his demise.

In “A Tale of Two Bills” it is also mentioned that Gates and Clinton share

several similarities, which also pertain to Gatsby:

• “Limitless drive”

• “Self-absorption”

• “A willingness to push the rules to the edge and past it” for desires

• “When called to account each was dismissive of legal process “

• “Each had strained relationship with truth”

It was the limitless drive and willingness to push the rules to the edge for his

desires that caused Gates to become the center of attention when Microsoft was

accused of monopolizing the market for web browsers by packaging Internet

explorer with its windows operating systems. Gates grew up affluently and began
his career with a company he opened when he was in high school. Later, Gates

transitioned to a position at IBM and created the Windows OS for them, the rights of

which were given to him to keep, and from there he became the world’s richest

man.

Gates life story can be related to Gatsby’s because Gates rises to affluence in a

potentially illegal manner, and pays no attention to the fact, until people get onto

him about it and charge him with an attempt to form a monopoly. Similarly, Gatsby

bootlegs to earn his wealth and is convicted of nothing but murdering Myrtle

because he had an affair with her according to a man named Wilson. The difference

is that Gatsby is dead because of his connection to Daisy and that Gates did not fail

to reach his dream but instead became the world’s richest man.

Gates and Clinton are like Gatsby because Gatsby’s life story parallels theirs in

the fact that all three achieved the American dream: They became known for

something from oblivion and became very wealthy from middle class families.

Gatsby is representative of the American dream because the American dream is not

only an achievement but a series of mistakes or misfortunes that one perseveres

through or doesn’t and when they get through they have achieved what every

American wants: Freedom, Wealth, and Fame. One key similarity between Gatsby

and the two “Bills” is that all three gave up their dignity to gain their desires; Gates

gave up his reliability and honesty, for he said he knew nothing about things he did,

Clinton gave up his loyalty to his wife and the American people for an affair, and

Gatsby gave up his respectability when it was discovered that he was bootlegging,

and it was all for Daisy.