During the 1920s, in the wake of nationwide prosperity, a new social class arose in America, comprised of those who came from humble origins and worked hard to gain significant wealth. As Jennifer Banach puts it, “this prosperity also gave people license to experiment with hedonism and cast off their moral and social responsibilities to pursue their own pleasure” (23). An American who reached for opulence himself, F. Scott Fitzgerald observed these realties first hand. In his short stories, “Winter Dreams” and “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” Fitzgerald expresses the emptiness of the wealthy and criticizes the popular obsession with the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1896 into a reasonably affluent …show more content…
Fitzgerald tells of Dexter Green, a “hardworking, confident young man who becomes caught up in the pursuit of wealth and status,” and his lover, Judy Jones, a young wealthy girl (Short Stories 15). Fitzgerald introduces Jones by describing her behavior at a golf course where Dexter caddies. Engaged in a quarrel with the nurse, Jones hollers, “"You damn little mean old thing!" (Winter Dreams). She exhibits her hollowness by showing her indifference and chastising an old nurse. At the time, Jones is still young, but because of her parent’s money, she acts as the boss of the elder nurse. In a later scene, the narrator ascertains that Jones “was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm,” again exposing her shallow personality (Winter Dreams). While preparing to leave Judy at the end of the same section, Dexter witnesses Judy cry, a scene he had never seen before. He feels a sense of shock that Judy had the capacity to express her emotions through crying. One parallel we can find to Judy Jones character presents itself in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. He wrote both stories at the same time, and readers have found that both “center on a young man from a modest background who strives to be a part of the exclusive world inhabited by the woman he loves” (Perkins). Both Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby and …show more content…
The Washingtons’ overwhelming ethical ignorance becomes apparent as soon as John T. Unger arrives at their home. When told that the father, Braddock Washington, only fears airplanes, John inquires why. Percy Washington then deliberates, “We’ve got half a dozen anti−aircraft guns and we 've arranged it so far−−but there 've been a few deaths and a great many prisoners. Not that we mind that, you know, father and I, but it upsets mother and the girls” (Diamond as Big as the Ritz). The Washington men’s absolute emptiness envelops them so much that they fail to feel a sense of remorse at a person’s death. Later, when inside the Washington’s home, John notices African-American slaves. Slavery, of course, was outlawed by the 13th Amendment in 1865, after the North defeated the South in the Civil War. Decades later, the Washingtons stunningly still possessed slaves. The narrator explains this oddity, telling that in order to keep his slaves, one of the Washingtons’ ancestors read his slaves “a proclamation that he had composed, which announced that General Forrest had reorganized the shattered Southern armies and defeated the North in one pitched battle” therefore savoring slavery (Diamond as Big as the Ritz). With an absent sense of righteousness, the Washingtons feel no guilt in fooling slaves and keeping them unlawfully for generations. Finally, the Washington’s
Scott Fitzgerald uses paradoxes frequently in“ Winter Dreams,” thus endowing characters such as Judy Jones with a deeper meaning. When Fitzgerald introduces Judy Jones, a young obnoxious girl, he describes her appearance as pretty yet two-folded: “Beautifully ugly as little girls are apt to be who are destined after a few years to be inexpressibly lovely and bring no end to misery to a great number of men” (Fitzgerald, F. Scott, “Winter Dreams,” as quoted in Elements of Literature: Fifth Course, Kathleen Daniel, Austin, Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1997, p. 589). Furthermore, Fitzgerald portrays Judy Jones‘ expression proficiently :“The smile again radiant, blatantly artificial-convincing” (589). Yet again, the author vividly shows Judy Jones’s convoluted smile: “She favored him with an absurd smirk-rather, what tried to be a smirk, for, twist her mouth as she might, it was not grotesque, it was merely beautiful”
Both of these stories provide insight into the lives of people in the 1920s and help us understand the history of this time period. We see that during this era, one's wealth held greater importance than their character. The 1920s were marked by corruption, poverty, and liveliness. F. Scott Fitzgerald's two amazing stories immerse us in the characters' experiences. Stories like these offer valuable insight into how men and women lived during this decade, and we can be grateful that we have achieved greater equity among individuals today.
Is a Winter Dream a reality or just an illusion? Winter Dreams was published in December 1922. F. Scott Fitzgerald is most known for his novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald likes the common theme of failure trying to accomplish the American Dream, and false corrupt forms in which the dream really exists. His secondary themes include wealth, power, beauty, and economic class. Fitzgerald likes to write about love, corruption and, fantasy during the Jazz age. Winter Dreams is about a middle-class boy falling in love with a wealthy girl and doing whatever he can to obtain her. Dexter Green chases his dream of wealth and love for one woman only for it to come crashing down. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the characterization of hope through Dexter’s Green
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the seasons as an intricate part of the setting in "Winter Dreams". The seasons are a reflection of the human life cycle. We are given Dexter's outlook of each season throughout the story. Dexter Green longs to live the American Dream of a prosperous life with a beautiful family like the rich people he encounters at the golf course.
The short story of “Winter Dreams” was written around the same time that Fitzgerald was developing ideas for a story to turn into a novel. While The Great Gatsby wasn’t published until 1925, “Winter Dreams” débuted in 1922 and the similarities between the novel and short story were done on purpose. “Winter Dreams” became a short draft which Fitzgerald paralleled The Great Gatsby after, but also differentiated the two in specific ways (“Winter Dreams” 217). The main characters are both men, Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green, who desire for the American dream, not necessarily for themselves, but in order to lure back the women they idealize. In The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s constant theme is shown through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green, both similar in the way they pursue the American dream of wealth and social status in order to try and win back the women they love, but also different in specific ways.
The dawn of the 20th century was met with an unprecedented catastrophe: an international technological war. Such a horrible conflict perhaps threatened the roots of the American Dream! Yet, most do not realize how pivotal the following years were. Post war prosperity caused a fabulous age for America: the “roaring twenties”. But it also was an era where materialism took the nation by storm, rooting itself into daily life. Wealth became a measure of success and a facade for social status. This “Marxist materialism” threatened the traditional American Dream of self-reliance and individuality far even more than the war a decade before. As it morphed into materialistic visions (owning a beautiful house and car), victims of the change blindly chased the new aspiration; one such victim was Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. As his self-earned luxury and riches clashed with love, crippling consequences and disasters occur. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby delves into an era of materialism, exploring how capitalism can become the face of social life and ultimately cloud the American Dream.
America is the land with the most dreamers. America is the land of opportunity and equality. In America your dreams can be fulfilled if you work hard to achieve your goals. The American dream to most is, to be wealthy and to be able to afford anything. Wealth is a plus in life because you can afford expensive items that do not necessarily have a use, but it does not necessarily matter how hard you try or how much you spend you can not buy happiness. Although being wealthy can make you seem happy on the outside, on the inside you would not be as happy as you seem. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author shows how being wealthy will not make you happy. Many people have voiced their opinions of the America dream.
Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has indisputably been one of the most influential and insightful pieces on the corruption and idealism of the American Dream. The American Dream, defined as ‘The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone,’ was a dominant ideal in American society, stemming from an opportunist pioneer mentality. In his book ‘The American Tradition in Literature’, Bradley Sculley praised The Great Gatsby for being ‘perhaps the most striking fictional analysis of the age of gang barons and the social conditions that produced them.’ Over the years, greed and selfishness changed the basic essence of the American Dream, forming firmly integrated social classes and the uncontainable thirst for money and status. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a time of ‘sustained increase in national wealth’ , which consequently led to an increase in materialism and a decrease in morality. Moreover, the
It’s been ingrained into the fabric of society that to be truly happy in life, one needs to be wealthy. The characters in The Great Gatsby show this is not always the case, and that wealth is not always as important as one would believe. Society has always placed a significant importance on being rich, being wealthy. It makes one believe that being wealthy is the only true way to live a happy and fulfilling life. With this in mind, many readers are going to look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, such as Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, and fantasize about one day living the lifestyle that they live. While many characters in The Great Gatsby would appear from the outside to be living the American Dream, it what lies underneath this image of
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.
...m that was based more on wealth and possessions and less on hard work and achievement. The fact that he later rebelled against the material 1920s culture shows that he was in fact cautioning against this lifestyle rather than encouraging it.” This more than anything proves Fitzgerald is making a commentary on the corruption of the American Dream rather than simply the tale of wealthy lovers.
Through the use of symbolism and critique, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to elucidate the lifestyles and dreams of variously natured people of the 1920s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He uses specific characters to signify diverse groups of people, each with their own version of the “American Dream.” Mostly all of the poor dream of transforming from “rags to riches”, while some members of the upper class use other people as their motivators. In any case, no matter how obsessed someone may be about their “American Dream”, Fitzgerald reasons that they are all implausible to attain.
American clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger one said “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it 's possible to achieve the American dream.” This idea of the “American dream” has been around since the founding and had become a prominent part of American culture and identity. This same idea is what the raved about novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is based around. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist pursues this American dream through his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan and his need to be insanely rich. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to symbolize the American dream, and uses his rags to riches journey to convey to his readers that the American dream is an extremely dangerous thing to pursue and ultimately impossible
There often lies a disparity between the idea of something and that something’s reality: the idea seems much brighter than that something itself. This conviction arises in all aspects of one’s life, from politics, to religion, to hobbies, to entertainment, and relationships. F. Scott Fitzgerald examines the harsh reality of such a dilemma in his work “Winter Dreams.” This story follows a self-made, successful man, Dexter, and his inner struggle between the need to attain wealth and success. Ultimately, Dexter is forced to face reality when this desire clashes with his fantasies surrounding Judy Jones, the woman of his pursuit. As a writer of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters often assume a materialistic lifestyle and a self-justifying importance to conceal their desire for the central truth. Through his work, Fitzgerald manages to define, honor, and criticize what is known as the American Dream: the belief that anyone, no matter their background, can attain success, material wealth, and prosperity. In “Winter Dreams,” Fitzgerald masterfully uses characterization and symbolism to illustrate the demise of the unachievable, American Dream, and the rising disconnect between reality and idealism.
...al 1922. F. Scott Fitzgerald was not biased for or against the rich in writing this book, he was simply trying to chronicle the lives and times of the early part of the 20’s. His lack of a bias is what makes his book such an accurate description of the era that he wrote about. This book should be considered “required reading” because it introduces the reader to what life was like for the rich at that time, as well as the general mood that pervaded the decade. It speaks of concepts such as bootlegging, gambling, and “new money”, ideas that previously were not commonly written of. F. Scott Fitzgerald can be considered an authority on the twenties because he lived in the twenties with the type of people that were described in his book.