Comparing The Snows Of Kilimanjaro And Winter Dreams

Have you ever imagined a world more stunning and luxurious than the life you have now? Somewhere bursting with spirit and life, while also shimmering with fantastic mystery. If you had created a fantasy world you may be able to relate to the great American authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, who wrote of this dream in Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams,” and Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” The leading characters in both stories believed that the upper class lived a flawless and beautiful life, which is vividly described through the author’s imagery. With the use of narration as well as dialogue, the authors expressed each character’s longing to be a part of this imaginary perfect existence and how devastated

When Dexter escorts Judy back to her house after their first encounter as adults, he is equally awed by her living quarters as he is with her appearance. As he is looking at the house, he fantasizes that “there was a feeling of mystery in it, of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and stance than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through these deep corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid already in lavender, but were fresh and breathing and set forth in rich motor cars and in great dances whose flowers were scarcely withered” (Fitzgerald 665). Since Dexter comes from a middle class family, he naturally feels inferior to and glorifies Judy because she has an established wealthy background. This fantasy that he created that surrounded Judy made her all the more valuable in his eyes. Dexter believes that everything that she had must be finer and more beautiful than his own, and this perfection that she held was what he strives for. He built himself up from modest beginnings through successful business ventures but realizes that even with this new pool of wealth, he does not possess the superior qualities that Judy has. By standards of Jonathan Culler in his book, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Dexter’s viewpoint of Judy must mean that he is an unreliable narrator because he “provide[s] enough information about situations and clues about [his] own biases to make [the reader] doubt [his] interpretations of events” (Culler 89). His biased opinion of Judy makes the reader question if his assessment of her and her life are truly as beautiful and glorious as he makes it appear. Consequently, if his judgment of Judy is flawed and her life is not as perfectly charming as he envisions, then his dream of having her flawless lifestyle is nothing but a