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American Dream in American literary works
American Dream in American literary works
American Dream in American literary works
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Dexter’s interaction with Judy shown through the symbol of the motorboat in “Winter Dreams” allows Dexter to envision a new direction he wants to take in his life. A direction in life leading Dexter to the corrupted idea of the American dream emphasizing wealth and material possessions. Dexter compares his encounter with Judy to an addicting drug that allowed him to feel a sense of ecstasy. “It was a mood on intense appreciation, a sense that, for once, he was magnificently attuned to life and that everything about him was radiating a brightness and a glamour he might never know again.” (377) Moreover Dexter constantly misinterprets Judy and how she could be a bad influence on him. The motorboat demonstrates that Judy comes from a high class
“In her wealth, social status and beauty, she symbolizes the golden-girl embodiment of the American Dream” (Lahood, “Judy”). Judy has Dexter wrapped around his finger to the point where his emotions revolved around her presence. Judy made Dexter feel excited, energetic, and longing for his American Dream. “She had treated him with interest, with encouragement, with malice, with indifference, with contempt” (Fitzgerald). Judy not only was Dexter’s final wish for his American Dream, she manipulated him into thinking she was the ultimate prize that could never be won.
As a child, Judy had a large imagination; and loved to play. Judy always had an adoration of books; she relished the texture, scent, and everything about them. There was one thing though, Judy wanted a book about a child that she could relate to. When Judy was about ten years old, she had to leave her New Jersey home for Miami, Florida, along with her Mother, Nanny Mama, and David. They were going to Florida for the winter because the cold weather in New Jersey was bad for David's health. Doey had to stay in New Jersey to manage his dentist office. Judy wasn't so sure about Miami, plus she was worried about her father because he was forty-two and all of his older brothers had died at that very age. At first Judy wasn't so sure about living in Miami, it was so different. Judy soon made friends with a few girls that lived in the same apartment building as her. They did everything together. They hung out at the beach, did ballet lessons, and went to the same school. Judy left Miami and went back to New Jersey for the summer. The n...
To some this story might seem like a tragedy, but to Christians this is a beautiful story. Although young Harry dies at the end, he is accepted into the kingdom of God, which is far superior to anything on Earth. A non-religious family raises him and the first taste of Christianity he gets makes him want to pursue God. In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, The River, the allure of Gods grace and the repelling of sinful ways are shown heavily through Harry.
The similarities between Jay and Dexter are quite apparent when reading each story. They both come from the Midwest and although Dexter’s family has some money, both are similar in the fact that they did not start out as wealthy, upper class men from rich families. Their hard work and determination to make their own wealth and acquire the luxuries and social status that come with it are completely by their own doing. Both men achieve their goals of the American dream at a relatively young age and are able to be a part of the high society they once observed from a distance. Their desire to amass wealth and the perks associated with it come with an ulterior motive, to win back the girls they desire that will only be with them if they have the wealth and status to bring to the table.
The iconic Irish trinity symbol a.k.a. the trinity or Celtic knot has been a revered symbol in Ireland for centuries. The trinity represents the Power of Three or triquetra (try-KET-ra). The Power of Three is an immutable law that when three entities combine powers, they increase their power far greater than three times.
Dexter fantasizes his life and falls victim to his adolescent dreams that he is never able to fulfill. In his quest to achieve Judy, Dexter never sees more than the outside beauty of Judy, which haunts him for the rest of his life. Judy simply goes towards the direction of wealth. She confesses that she was breaking off relation with another man just because he was not able to support her financially. Dexter is in love with the idea of having Judy as a wife because of her beauty and her social class, which blinds him from the reality of who Judy is. For Dexter, the American Dream is not just about wealth; it is also about acquiring social status to have the ability to marry a woman who is rich. We see the dark side of the American Dream, where even though the main character achieves success, glory, and wealth, he still cannot find true happiness. This is the irony about the American Dream. One would expect that once he or she achieves wealth and success, they would live happily, but for the main characters in the two works, it brings more pain and suffering. Through the use of irony in Winter Dreams, Fitzgerald exposes the shallowness that comes from the pursuit of American Dream. The pursuit of the American Dream makes Dexter blind and prevents him from achieving true happiness. Similarly, Jay Gatsby also deals with identical problems where he is not able to find happiness because of his desire to gain social status and the woman of his dreams proving another area, where Winter Dreams acts as a microcosm of The Great
The concept of the American dream has been related to everything from religious freedom to a nice home in the suburbs. It has inspired both deep satisfaction and disillusioned fury. The phrase elicits for most Americans a country where good things can happen. However, for many Americans, the dream is simply unattainable. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Green, a hardworking young man born into the middle class, becomes wrapped up in his pursuit to obtain wealth and status in his life. These thoughts and ideas represent Dexter’s fixation on his “winter dreams,” or, the idea of what the American Dream means to him: gaining enough wealth to eventually move up in social class and become somebody, someday. As Dexter attempts to work himself up the social ladder, he falls in love with Judy Jones, a shallow and selfish, rich woman. But to Dexter, Judy represents the very idea of the American Dream-- obtaining wealth and status. Dexter’s pursuit of Judy and essentially the American Dream becomes an obsession. In the end, Dexter is forced to accept the realization that his “winter dreams” are actually just empty wishes. By characterizing Judy as a superficial, materialistic woman, Fitzgerald criticizes the destructive nature of the American Dream.
Hansberry starts the play with a family with frustrated dreams. These dreams mostly involve money. Although the Younger family seems turnoff from the middle-class white culture they want to obtain the same materialistic dreams as the rest of American society. The America Dream is for everyone, as Hughes state in his poem “Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain seeking a home where he himself is free”. Is like Hughes is saying let the Younger be able to fulfill their dreams, even though they are not middle-class people. Let them have the freedom to get want they desire. Which indeed is possible for the Younger to obtain if they stay thinking positive and in
The reason why William Golding chose to write his work “Lord of the Flies” is because the book was based on his own emotional views of mankind and his disconnection with his parent’s view of the world. His emotional views of mankind also stemmed from being a part of WWII as a member of the Royal Navy where he witnessed many deaths. Golding wanted to share with his readers the true complexity of the rise and fall of social order and the concept of survival of the fittest. Ironically, at the end of the book, a naval officer was their savior.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a classic example of a story with its themes being expressed in the form of a heavy symbolism influence. Each member of the Wingfield family, including Amanda, Laura and Tom, has their individual internal and emotional struggles. These problems are represented with symbols that are strongly emphasized throughout the story as they relate to the family. It is apparent that Tom and Laura’s symbols are some of the most important. These symbols include the fire escape, the nickname “Blue Roses” given to Laura, and the unicorn figurine in Laura’s glass menagerie.
The American Dream: the traditional social ideals of the US, such as equality, democracy, and material prosperity. Dexter represents this very well in the story Winter Dreams because it shows how he starts from the bottom and eventually works his way to the top. This is kind of an inspiring story because it starts off by having him be the best and most successful golf caddy that this golf course has ever had. All of the people that had him as a caddy were against him going other places and doing something with his life. Dexter made his own decisions and went where he wanted to go and he wanted more out of his like than being a golf caddy his whole life. In the text Winter Dreams written by Scott Fitzgerald Dexter is a worthy tribute to the American Dream he showed us that you can start from the bottom and have a very successful career ahead of you, Dexter showed us that if you work hard enough you can end up at the top, but you have to be willing to do the work, and everyone has an equal opportunity to be successful it is just the people who are willing to make sacrifices and want to be successful in life.
Scott Fitzgerald displays Dexter as a hard worker who is fighting for what he perceives as valuable and desirable. Dexter’s father offers Dexter a paid college, but Dexter declines, so he can attend an older, more famous college (735). There wasn’t any more merit in either college, and in fact the older college is more expensive. When Dexter actually is asked out to dinner with Judy Jones, it’s given away that he desires Judy romantically even though shes a horrible person. Before he decides he wants her, she confesses that she broke up with a man for not being upfront about his poverty.She takes interest in Dexter when he confesses he’s wealthy for his age (741). This shows Dexter doesn’t like her personality but I believe Dexter only wants her for her glittering charm and social standing. Much like an expensive new car, it looks good on you if you’re the one who owns
Certain criminal proceedings have had an enormous impact in the ideal American character. One example was the 1925 Monkey Scopes Trial in which John Scopes was being prosecuted for teaching Evolution. In a similar vein the speeches led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the trials known as the “Red Scare” enraged many American authors and producers, leading these individuals to spread their own ideas and to defend civil rights. Two playwrights who lived through the “Red Scare” trials, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, addresses the oppression of the McCarthy trials by a meek character called Bert Cates throughout their play named Inherit the Wind. A nationally recognized lawyer, Henry Drummond, uses his gift of freedom of speech to support Cates. Cates love interest, Rachel Brown, grows intellectually and portrays the change that Lawrence and Lee want to see in Americans. Furthermore, Brady comes to prosecute Cates for teaching Evolution throughout the schools in Tennessee. In this allegorical play Lawrence and Lee’s use of symbolic characters challenges the status quo and inspires American intellectual growth.
Dexter had to keep himself from forgetting he cannot have Judy Jones. In the end of the story Dexter has come to a conclusion he could not have Judy, “When autumn had come and gone again, it occurred to him that he could not have Judy Jones. He had to beat this into his mind, but he convinced himself at last. He lay awake at night for a while and argued it over. He told himself the trouble and the pain she had caused him, he enumerated her glaring deficiencies as a wife”(p 974). While Dexter cared for Judy he felt that he need to forget her since he knew he could never really have her full attention. While he knew he could never have her he knew he could never have her he meet her again and falls for her all over again one last time and this time it was her that was convincing him to date once again. "I'm more beautiful than anybody else," she said brokenly, "why can't I be happy?" Her moist eyes tore at his stability--her mouth turned slowly downward with an exquisite sadness: "I'd like to marry you if you'll have me, Dexter. I suppose you think I'm not worth having, but I'll be so beautiful for you, Dexter"(p 977). While Dexter was not too sure how to feel he didn't know how to react to this, with Judy he
In this story by Kate Chopin, the heart trouble is both a symbolic and physical malady that stands for her ambivalence towards her unhappiness and marriage conjoined inability to be free. The first thing we qauire in the book is that Louise is suffering from a heart problem;additionally we learn that her heart problem is also the reason why the announcement of the death of Brently seems so threatening now. It is also clear that an individual with a heart problem would certainly not deal with such terrible news. In any instance where Louise tries to go through the idea of her renewed independence, her heart races as the blood in her veins pumps to the extremes. As the story ends, Louise dies. The diagnosis of her heart disease looks appropriate to her disease but it seems even more appropriate since she experienced shock once she saw Brently. Surely, such shock is enough to drive her to her deathbed. It is however ironic that the doctor concludes that the main reason as to the death of Louiseis overwhelming joy. It is ironic because it is not joy that had led to her death but rather loss of joy, which had killed her. Louise had certainly died because of a broken heart that was caused by the idea of suddenly losing her much loved independence (Chopin, The Story of an Hour)