Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Great gatsby importance of money
American dream in american literature
American dream in american literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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 …show more content…
As long as Dexter is able to keep Judy and the American Dream alive in his thoughts, he is satisfied. However, because he is forced to admit the reality that Judy is no longer the woman that she once was, “the dream [is] gone. Something [was] taken from him” (Fitzgerald 1025). He is robbed of his visions of perfection because he is no longer able to imagine Judy as she once was: beautiful, lively, and powerful. The business associate that delivers the news of Judy’s new, less than ideal lifestyle claims that, “she has lost her beauty and vitality. [Dexter’s] dream shatters and breaks down. [He is] overcome by a profound sense of loss” (Perkins). He is mourning the loss of not only Judy, but the loss of his dream of living in the exclusive world of the wealthy and successful. Because he becomes consciously aware of his fragmenting “winter dreams,” he discovers that “their greatest value was in the dreaming; and now he has lost the only way left to preserve that priceless capacity” (Pike 90). Because his vision of Judy is destroyed, he can no longer hold on to the value of his dreams; he is forced to relinquish the meaning that these illusions once held. By realizing the hollowness behind his winter dreams, Dexter is forced to accept the image of Judy as a less than perfect …show more content…
Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more” (Fitzgerald 1025). He is fully comprehending for the first time that he will never reach his fantasies of living among the upper class and possessing the kind of wealth and “happiness” that members of that class possess. While he tries to grasp this heartbreaking concept, he “watches his beautiful vision crumble; he is forced to admit the illusory nature of his winter dreams” (“Winter Dreams”). His dreams no longer hold a genuine meaning to him; they are nothing but worthless illusions that will no longer allow him to fantasize after success. As Dexter continues to process his now meaningless goals for his life, he realizes that he “finally and forever loses not only Judy and his love for her, but also his ability to keep alive in his imagination the best part of his youth and its winter dreams” (Burhans). His lifelong search toward meaning and hope for a wealthy, successful life has evaporated; he can no longer even keep this dream existing in his mind. By failing to achieve wealth, success, and status (the
In “Winter Dreams”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the lifestyle is all about the American Dream. Dexter Green, the main character, has been searching for that ideal American Dream since he was a young boy. Dexter spent his entire life seeking wealth and Judy Jones, who was in fact the ideal women. In the end of the story the loss of Judy revealed Dexter’s dream for his life, his values, and the values of those around him.
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
The. Fitzgerald, F. S., and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection. The. New York: Scribner, 1989.
Bruccoli, Matthew J., ed. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Scribners, 1989.
Throughout history, men and women have never been considered equal. Women have always been judged on their appearance rather than the quality of the person they are. In the short story, “Winter Dreams,” Scott Fitzgerald uses characterization and metaphor to stress the fact that women are often objectified by other people.
O’Brien, Tim, and Jonathan D’Amore.” Every Question Leads to the next: An Interview with Tim O’Brien.” Carolina Quarterly 58.2 (Spring 2007): Pages 31-99. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 123. Detroit:Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 May 2014.
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
Bewley, Marius. "Scott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America." The Sewanee Review 62.2 (1954): 223-46. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
... In Teaching Short Fiction 9.2 (2009): 102-108. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Shattered dreams, especially the “American Dream”, is a theme that is relevant in both stories The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams.”
Every individual in the world has an American dream, something one can achieve by working hard and never giving up. However, some individuals realize that their American dream might not be achievable after all. Some individuals such as Dexter and Gatsby, realize that life sometimes might not go the way you want it to. Winter Dreams and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, show that the American Dream, in some cases, may not be fulfilled the way you want it to be.
One difference is that Dexter dreams about success all his life because his family wasn’t always he best and he always wants that in his life. When he sees Judy he is thrown off his track of becoming his dream, along the way he desires the glittery things but doesn’t let the glittery thing over power him. When Dexter started to like Judy he has success and money, but she thought he was poor and then she started to like him after she knew he wasn’t poor. After a little while he sees Judy again and she is very different then before she has matured and he accidentally sees her at the same restaurant. That shows that he wasn’t trying to meet up with her and trying to see her like before. In conclusion, those are just a few differences how Dexter desired material success and how he pursued Judy
A dream is a deep ambition and desire for something; everybody tries to reach their dreams no matter how far away they may seem. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories strive for nothing less than “The Great American Dream”. This is the need to be the best of the best, top of the social ladder, and to be happier and more successful than anyone has been before. Fitzgerald writes about this American Dream that every character has but can never achieve; the dream is kept unattainable due to obstacles, the disadvantages of being low on the social ladder, and also the restrictions of having a high social status.
Sherwood Anderson: Dimensions of His Literary Art. Ed. David D. Anderson. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1976. 41-60. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jelena O. Krstovic, Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Mar. 2011.
Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. The.