Compare And Contrast The Great Gatsby And Winter Dreams

The Great Gatsby vs. “Winter Dreams”

Who would have thought the main characters of different readings could experience the similar feelings and events? The two readings that will be compared are The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”, both of which are written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The first reading that will be discussed is The Great Gatsby and then “Winter Dreams”. The Great Gatsby is about a man with the name of Jay Gatsby, who is determined to get the girl of his dreams. Eventually the careless girl that leads Gatsby on never intends to fully commit herself to him and Gatsby dies fairly lonely. In “Winter Dreams” a man named Dexter Green falls in love with a girl that deceives him, but in the end when the girl wants Dexter it is too late.

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is truly in love with a woman named Daisy Buchanan for many years, there is even a green light on Daisy’s dock that is visible from Gatsby’s house to symbolize his hope for his future with Daisy. In order to reunite with Daisy Gatsby throws parties hoping that she will attend one so he can seek her out, “‘I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties some night’ went on Jordan...” (Great 77). Gatsby goes out of his way to come in contact with Daisy again, he even goes as far as setting up an “accidental” meeting with Daisy at Nick’s house. In other words it is almost as if Gatsby has an obsession with Daisy, so he looks for any opportunity there could be to reach out and talk to

For example Gatsby and Dexter both work to obtain their riches. Gatsby does not start off with all the money that he ends with, in order to become wealthy he has to work for it. “‘He and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong” (Great 126). In the reading Gatsby comes into his wealth by selling alcohol and possibly doing other illegal acts with his crooked cohort Meyer Wolfshiem, but even though the way he acquires his money is not upright he still has to work for