The story of “Winter Dreams” begins with a boy named Dexter Green, who was just a simple golf caddie at simply the age of fourteen. Throughout the story he becomes quite a success financially and was able to live a more prestigious lifestyle than he did in his earlier childhood. Through Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams”, Dexter envisioned that economic success and seeking the possession of the unattainable would lead to happiness, but it would eventually lead to disarray and unhappiness.
One of Fitzgerald’s main themes to this story is how the changing of the seasons reflects the change of attitude we have on life and our personal mood. Dexter’s profession at the beginning of the story was a golf caddie. He spent the majority of his time underneath sun and surrounded by the shear beauty of nature. The happiest moments of Dexter’s life were when the game of golf was being played in the warm summer months. Dexter did not like the winter, and Fitzgerald represents this by saying, “At these times the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy-it offended him that the links should lie in dreary, too, that on the tees where the gay colors fluttered in summer there were now only the desolate sand-boxes knee-deep in crusted ice (1830). The imagination of the snow melting into Lake Erminie gave Dexter a sense of ease and comfortableness that no other season would give him (Fitzgerald 1830).
In the harshest of times and the harshest seasons, Dexter would dream about the summer and what happiness it brought him. The summer was seen to him as an opportunity and a reminder of some of his most cherished moments. The winter dream became Dexter’s dream of summer months, and this often dictated his life decisions (Fitzger...
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...ng this unattainable reality. The happiest time of his life was the beginning when he spent his days on the golf course in the summer months as a caddy. Once started to have his winter dreams, he never looked back on the past until it was too late. When the story unravels at the end, Dexter unveils his true emotions about how his life never found purpose or fulfillment. He often believed that purpose and fulfillment would be found in material possessions and the people he was with. Throughout the short story, “Winter Dreams”, Dexter anticipated that financial stability and attaining the unattainable would lead to contentment, but it would eventually lead to the destruction of his life.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Winter Dreams." McMichael, George L., and J. S. Leonard. Concise Anthology of American Literature. Boston: Longman, 2010. 1830-1845. Print.
In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Piece, the main Character, Gene Forrester, has to learn to become friends with his hazardous roommate, Phineas, at his school, Devon, in New Hampshire. The novel is affected by a number of changes, however the largest and most significant change is the change in seasons. In Thomas C. Foster’s novel, How to read literature like a Professor, chapter twenty explains the significance of the seasons. Foster states that, “Summer [symbolizes] adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion,” while, “ winter [symbolizes] old age and resentment and death.” John Knowles’ book A Separate Peace, all aspects of Summer, Fall, and Winter are excellently represented as explained in Thomas C. Foster’s novel, How to read
In the book “The Boys of Winter” by Wayne Coffey, shows the struggle of picking the twenty men to go to Lake Placid to play in the 1980 Olympics and compete for the gold medal. Throughout this book Wayne Coffey talks about three many points. The draft and training, the importance of the semi-final game, and the celebration of the gold medal by the support the team got when they got home.
Dexter denies his background as coming from the middle class and wanting to have more in life. He started as a fourteen year old golf caddie and was the best one around. Dexter one day while working thought to himself that he could have so much more than just being a golf caddie. Then and there he decided to quit his job and move on with his life. As Dexter grows up and moves out west to fulfill his dream, there is a duality inside of him that ultimately is his own downfall.
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 above quote is representative of Dexter’s trials and tribulations on a daily basis and in a way, of every individual’s too. The quote suggests that each one of us have an alternate true self which may come out to surprise us any day. Where does this alternate self dwell? It dwells deep inside our unconscious mind. The question that arises then is why do we hide our alternate true self even from ourselves? It’s because reality is too terrible and traumatic for us to be able to handle it. It provokes too much anxiety for our conscious mind. In order to prevent our unconscious mind take over, we twist and distort reality and keep pretending that everything is just fine. The unconscious mind plays these neat tricks every moment on us, so that we can blend into the crowd and avoid numbing pressure of reality and go sleep at night.
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 narrator introduces Judy’s character with the implication that she is the motivation behind Dexter quitting his job. This is followed closely by the foreshadowing of Dexter’s hopeless pursuit of Judy, stating she was the type of girl who is “…destined after a few years to be inexpressibly lovely and bring no end of misery to a great number of men” (Fitzgerald 1). By stating Judy is going to be the type of woman that will bring misery to men, the narrator suggest that Judy will only bring Dexter unhappiness. Each time the two interact, Dexter alters his dream so that he can have the “American Dream,” a life symbolized by Judy’s. After first meeting Judy, Dexter decided to quit his job and pursue success. Once he achieves financial success his subsequent reunion with Judy changes his “American Dream.” “His heart turned over like the fly-wheel of the boat, and, for the second time, her casual whim gave a new direction to his life” (Fitzgerald 4). This metaphor, of Dexter’s heart and ambitions being like the “fly-wheel of a boat,” show the how quick and easily he changes his dreams. With little thought, Dexter decides his aspiration is no longer financial gain, but Judy’s
The end result of both these novels shows the tragedy that can occur to everyday people, even if they didn’t do anything wrong. The American Dream made the fantasies of the men of the novels strive to attain it, but in the end the dreams of both the men ultimately destroyed them. Both Fitzgerald and Hansberry wrote these books not only for the intention to merely entertain people, but also to entice the reader into a thought, and question how things happen in the world. Both Realist authors embarked a rapid departure from the Romantic Movement, writing a novel that conveys to the reader what truly happens to people, and try to show the true pragmatism of the real world. Both authors write in tangent about the American dream, and both put forth the question of if it actually exists, and concluding from their very cynical novels, it truly does not.
Being uneducated and of lowly decent, Dexter was ostracized by his new peers and he set off to prove himself to
Economic status was highly sought after during this moment in American history. As readers can see through Dexter’s character, he spends his ...
In ‘Winter Dreams’, the ending is unexpected. Throughout the story, we are under the impression that this is the story of Dexter Green's love for Judy Jones. But at the end of the story, once Dexter finds out that Judy has lost her charms and settled into a bad marriage, we begin to wonder if this story is about something else entirely. Dexter does not weep for Judy. He weeps for himself, for the young man he once was and for the illusions he once held.
A doctor, a firefighter, a teacher, an astronaut: these are the kind of answers children give when asked the infamous question: What do you want to be when you grow up? As you grow older, this repetitive question becomes annoying because it forces you to confront and decide what exactly you want to do when you have been through adolescence. This conundrum is what plagues two characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams.” In this story, Judy Jones and Dexter Green chase after their own dreams and collide multiple times along the way. Jones wants to continue in her current lifestyle of freedom, power, and fame which seems attainable with her charm; however, Jones’ manipulative tendencies make her unappealing to people after a time.
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.
Is society too egotistical? In Hunters in the Snow, Tobias Wolfe gives an illustration of the selfishness and self-centeredness of humankind through the actions of his characters. The story opens up with three friends going on their habitual hunting routine; their names are Frank, Kenny, and Tub. In the course of the story, there are several moments of tension and arguments that, in essence, exposes the faults of each man: they are all narcissistic. Through his writing in Hunters in the Snow, Wolfe is conveying that the ultimate fault of mankind is egotism and the lack of consideration given to others.