Compare And Contrast Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

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.

In Winter Dreams, Dexter, the main character in the story, is unfortunate because of the small amount money of money he owns. His American Dream was to become successful and wealthy and become part of a higher social class. His dream caused him to take a business course at a state

university, helping him make money, which took him by surprise. He transformed into a different person, running five branches in different part of the city and owning the largest string of laundries in his section of the country.

Although he became successful like he wanted to, his life was not completely filled with enjoyment. He comes across Judy Jones, a girl who he falls in love with at first sight who ends up turning his life upside down. However his feelings toward Judy changed one night on the dark sun porch. Judy says,” There was a man I cared about, and this afternoon he told me out of clear sky that he was poor as a church-mouse. He’d never even hinted it before. Does this sound horribly mundane?”(7) This portrays that Judy doesn’t really care about one’s personality, but how wealthy the individual is. She gives a smile when Dexter talks about how he makes more money than most men do. Judy Jones personality can be expressed just like Daisy is in the Great Gatsby. When Dexter first sees Judy, after getting married to Irene, Judy is wearing a gold ban, has the color gold on her dress, and is wearing gold slippers. Gold, just like in The Great Gatsby, represents wealth. Judy’s obsession for money is clearly indicated by the items that she’s wearing; it is clearly shown that Daisy will do whatever she needs to do to get what she wants; even if its taking advantage of someone. After getting married to

Irene, Dexter thought he finally had it all; but he was wrong. One part of the text that shows Dexter’s love for Judy is, “When autumn had come an gone again it occurred to him that he could not have Judy Jones. Then he said to himself that he loved her, and after a while he fell asleep.”( 9) Dexter got married to a beautiful women, he knew on the inside that Judy was the girl he dreamed of getting married to, even though she wasn’t loving and only cared about herself.
In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s American dream is to get the girl, Daisy.

However, Gatsby doesn’t realize that Daisy symbolizes corruption. Daises are a type of flower, yellow on the outside and white on the inside. White, in the book, represents peace and a loving kind of nature; yellow, on the other hand, symbolizes gold and wealth. Just like Judy, Daisy only cares about the money, not the personality of an individual. Just like Dexter, Gatsby’s love for Daisy was instant. However, Gatsby was surprised when Daisy married Tom instead of him. Although Daisy already married, we can see how she’s confused on her decision., The narrator says, “Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. They’re such beautiful shirts she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before.”(92) This portrays how Daisy is really like. The plethora of shirts and the fabrics, show the wealth that Gatsby has. When Daisy first meets Gatsby, he is poor, which is why Daisy had no interest in him. She regrets marrying Tom because of the future she could have had with Gatsby consisting of money and love, which she couldn’t have with Tom because of his affair with Myrtle. In the book, Nick describes Gatsby and the future. Nick says, “And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He

had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.”(180) While the color green represents a whole new life for Gatsby, the color blue represents the unattainable life that Gatsby always hoped for. This page show how Gatsby still doesn’t realize that his opportunity of getting his dream has passed away and cannot be reached out to him again. The green light Nick describes is something Gatsby wants, but cannot easily get. He believes that one day, out of the blue, his life will become the way he always wanted it to be.
In conclusion, we can see that social classes play a huge role in both these pieces of literature. These men didn’t really know the real reason why these girls liked them in the way they did. They were basically taken advantage of by their wealth and not really what mattered the most, their personality. The American Dream was very hard to be reached and unfortunately wasn’t attainable by both these men. The Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams show how an individual’s American dream may turn out completely the opposite if what you want It to.