The characters Fitzgerald created in both The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” reveal the age in which he lived in and did very well to define the time period. In this way that Fitzgerald is regarded as a historian in the era. After World War I, American society went through a period of intense change. Traditional principles in God, country, and civilization were traumatized as Americans confronted the anguish of a war of that degree. During the 1920s, many Americans acknowledged that an old order had been substituted by a new, open society, one that embraced new fashions of clothing, behavior, and even the arts. Fitzgerald coined the name ‘‘Jazz Age’’ to describe this decade, which along with the ‘‘Roaring Twenties’’ came to express the Cultural Revolution that was then taking place at the time.
The qualities of these compelling characters was their pursuit of pleasure, particularly associated with the amassing of wealth, as a principal goal, upsetting traditional ideas of hard work, social conformity, and respectability. Dexter Greene was desperate to accumulate wealth in hopes that it would partner him with the social elite. Gatsby also pursued wealth in an attempt to raise his own status. Fitzgerald wrote “Winter Dreams” while he was still working on The Great Gatsby and this could be why the two works share numerous thematic and technical components. Both works center on a young man from a decent background who attempts to be a part of the elite world occupied by the women they love and dream about. For this reason, both Jay Gatsby and Dexter Greene are the two most compelling Fitzgerald characters.
At the beginning of “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Greene, a fourteen year old boy, is a caddie at Sherry Island Golf Club,...
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...vity to rise. Today, the use and abuse of alcohol continues to grow in the United States.
The qualities that make these two characters compelling is the fact that they are doomed to fail. Their obsession with the past causes them to neglect the present, and ultimately pursue goals that are unattainable. Gatsby does not want Daisy to just love him again. He needs her to erase all affections she had for Tom, which Daisy is unable to do. Gatsby “asks to much” because he needs Daisy to be the same as she was when they first met. Dexter and Gatsby want return to a time when they were of lower class and wealth to rekindle a romance with a love interest who moved on. It is this hopeless romanticism that makes their characters compelling and allows for emotional investment.
Perkins, Wendy. "Critical Essay on 'Winter Dreams'." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Carol
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.
Dexter, while he could’ve gone to a state university, went away to “. . . an older more famous university in the East, where he was bothered by his scanty funds.” After college he made an investment in a laundry business eventually growing it and becoming very wealthy. He returned to the golf course to play with the rich old men he once was a caddy for. Once he and Judy connected he tried and tried to be with her, to settle down with her, but he was never successful. Like Dexter, Jay Gatsby wanted nothing more than to marry Daisy. After he met Daisy and spent one night with her, he immediately fell in love. He spent the entire rest of his life trying to be good enough for her, right up to the moment he died. In the movie it says everything he ever did, was all for her. He threw all of those marvelous, large, extravagant parties, simply hoping that one day she would walk in. He bought that house directly across the bay hoping he would reconnect with her. He made up a fake identity for himself, got involved with horrible people doing illegal things, to earn enough money to be worth something to Daisy. It was all for Daisy, just like most of what Dexter did was all for
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
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the masterpiece of American literature and the product of three years of the thorough work. It was unfairly undervalued in the first part of the 20th Century and was banned in 1987. Fitzgerald wrote the short story Winter Dreams, as he described it as “a sort of draft of the Gatsby idea” (Hook 51). He finished the novel at the end of August 1924 and sent the manuscript to the Perkins, his editor, with the letter where he wrote: “I am sending you my third novel: The Great Gatsby (I think that at last I’ve done something really my own) but how good “my own “is reminds to be seen” (Hook 62).
The short story “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.
One’s parents owned the second best grocery store, and the other was a poor boy whose parents had no money. But these two have a similarity that makes the story better to understand who they are. For “The Great Gatsby” it seems to us that F. Scott Fitzgerald loves winding sentences that begin with one idea, person, or location and end up somewhere else entirely, and for “Winter Dreams” there is a strong sense of time passing. There is a similar tone in these two stories; a great example, in this story “Winter Dreams” author F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions the following quote, “During dinner [Judy] slipped into a moody depression which gave Dexter a feeling of uneasiness.
The Roaring Twenties was a time of excitement for the American people, with cities bustling with activity and a large community that appreciated Jazz, thus creating the title the “Jazz Age.” The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place in this magnificent age characterized by Jazz and the popular new dance, the “Charleston.” Through the midst of all this new activity, we follow a character named Jay Gatsby through the eyes of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Fitzgerald’s themes of friendship and The American Dream is seen in The Great Gatsby through Nick and Jay’s companionship and Gatsby’s growth from being a simple farm boy to becoming a wealthy man.
Certain authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, wanted to reflect the horrors that the world had experienced not a decade ago. In 1914, one of the most destructive and pointless wars in history plagued the world: World War I. This war destroyed a whole generation of young men, something one would refer to as the “Lost Generation”. Modernism was a time that allowed the barbarity of the war to simmer down and eventually, disappear altogether. One such author that thrived in this period was F. Scott Fitzgerald, a young poet and author who considered himself the best of his time. One could say that this self-absorption was what fueled his drive to be the most famous modernist the world had seen. As The New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean mentions in her literary summary of Fitzgerald’s works, “I didn’t know till fifteen that there was anyone in the world except me, and it cost me plenty” (Orlean xi). One of the key factors that influenced and shaped Fitzgerald’s writing was World War I, with one of his most famous novels, This Side Of Paradise, being published directly after the war in 1920. Yet his most famous writing was the book, The Great Gatsby, a novel about striving to achieve the American dream, except finding out when succeeding that this dream was not a desire at all. Fitzgerald himself lived a life full of partying and traveling the world. According to the Norton Anthology of American Literature, “In the 1920’s and 1930’s F. Scott Fitzgerald was equally equally famous as a writer and as a celebrity author whose lifestyle seemed to symbolize the two decades; in the 1920’s he stood for all-night partying, drinking, and the pursuit of pleasure while in the 1930’s he stood for the gloomy aftermath of excess” (Baym 2124). A fur...
Winter Dreams follows the life of Dexter Green as he pursues wealth and societal affluence in the hopes of winning the love and affection of Judy Jones, a spoiled socialite from a wealthy family who he first met when he was an adolescent while caddying at an exclusive golf club. As a result of this meeting and the embarrassment he felt in his role as a mere caddie; Dexter makes the irrational decision to quit his caddying job and begin his quest for upper-class social status. The author recapitulates this decision by the protagonist with the following statement; “It is not so simple as that either. As so frequently would be the case in the future, Dexter was unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams.”
At first glance the story is about love but once you get a bit deeper the truth shines through. It’s about the fantasy of fulfilling unachievable dreams, the selfishness money invokes, and the violence associated with power. Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom never fulfill their potentials in life. They are either trying to achieve their unachievable dream, or they are to wrapped up in themselves and their money and power.
The 1920’s was a tumultuous time for a young generation in search of a little fun. After World War I, gender roles were no longer the concrete pillars of society and the roaring 20’s era was born out of the ensuing chaos. This chaos included jazz, loose morals, and the sale of illegal alcohol that would ensure this generation of rabble-rousers would be notorious. Many writers attempted to capture the essence of this remarkable time. One of the most prolific of these writers, and one of the biggest contributors to the language that now surrounds the time, was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through the theme of the deterioration of the American dream and American morals and traditions, F. Scott Fitzgerald reflected his life in the jazz age, including
The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
Two of Fitzgerald’s works, Winter Dreams and The Great Gatsby, have very similar plots. Both features poor young men trying reach wealth. Both protagonist have a women of their dreams in mind. And both men are devastated in the end. However there are some things that make the stories differ. Wether it is in a shape of a narrator or the way the story is written, they do have differences.
Considered as the defining work of the 1920s, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, when America was just coming out of one of the most violent wars in the nation’s history. World War 1 had taken the lives of many young people who fought and sacrificed for our country on another continent. The war left many families without fathers, sons, and husbands. The 1920s is an era filled with rich and dazzling history, where Americans experienced changes in lifestyle from music to rebellion against the United States government. Those that are born into that era grew up in a more carefree, extravagant environment that would affect their interactions with others as well as their attitudes about themselves and societal expectations. In this novel, symbols are used to represent the changing times and create a picture of this era for generations to come. The history, settings, characters, and symbols embedded in The Great Gatsby exemplify life in America during the 1920s.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most compelling twentieth century writers, (Curnutt, 2004). The year 1925 marks the year of the publication of Fitzgerald’s most credited novel, The Great Gatsby (Bruccoli, 1985). With its critiques of materialism, love and the American Dream (Berman, 1996), this dramatic idyllic novel, (Harvey, 1957), although poorly received at first, is now highly regarded as Fitzgerald’s finest work (Rohrkemper, 1985) and is his publisher, Scribner 's most popular title, (Donahue, 2013). The novel achieved it’s status as one of the most influential novels in American history around the nineteen fifties and sixties, over ten years after Fitzgerald 's passing, (Ibid, 1985)