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“Winter Dreams” by F. Scott FitzgeraldCharacter Analysis
Winter dreams f scott fitzgerald literary elements
“Winter Dreams” by F. Scott FitzgeraldCharacter Analysis
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Can money buy us love? There is no simple answer. For some money is what their perception of love is. One cannot love without money in their life. Some people become blind to what love really is and get caught in the fantasy of being rich. The author of the short story “Winter Dreams”, Scott Fitzgerald, uses imagery and symbolism to show how a young man Dexter, who was raised in poverty, worked his way to a well paying job eventually becoming something even more. Dexter's love of money changes his views on what he truly was in love with before, Judy Jones.
In “Winter Dreams” by Scott Fitzgerald imagery and symbolism are used to show how someone's love for money can interfere with their love for what they truly care about. At the beginning
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of the story Dexter works at a golf course. The Golf Course represents everything Dexter wants to be. The Golf Course and Dexter’s eagerness to be on it symbolizes wealth and high status. The author uses symbolism to show Dexter’s “Winter Dream”, to be on the golf course and watch the everyday life of the higher class. Dexter realizes if he lives the life of one of the higher class he can win the love of Judy Jones, a young woman who belongs to the country club. Judy asks if Dexter is poor because she does not love poor men. Dexter replies and tells her “ I am probably the richest man my age in the Northwest” (Fitzgerald). Dexter believes if he is wealthy and lives in the higher class he can win over the love of Judy Jones. When Dexter starts to get caught up in money even his love For Judy Jones diaspeers. He gets so caught up with becoming part of the higher class that his original intentions of being apart of Judy’s life starts fading. His image of wealth and higher class over exceeds his love of the girl he is supposed to be chasing. “Long Ago” Dexter says, “There was something in me, but now that thing is gone. Now that thing is gone I can not cry, I can not love and that thing will come back no more”(Fitzgerald). His passion for judy is no more and the author Scott Fitzgerald uses his passion and “gray beauty of steel” to represent Dexter's new feelings towards Judy. Imagery throughout the story is portrayed within Dexter’s deep down love for Judy.
After ending things with her; Dexter, being the foolish young man he is let his recent love slip right back into his life. He sees her dressed up ever so beautifully and can't resist the feelings that he used to feel. Fitzgerald uses imagery to help readers understand how unforgettable Judy is and how Dexter can not escape the love of his recent partner. Dexter sees Judy dressed in a beautiful gold dress and can not resist. “Judy Jones a slender enamelled doll in cloth of gold: gold in a band at her head, gold in two slipper points at her dresses hem. The fragile glow of her face blossomed as she smiled”(Fitzgerald). It may seem that Dexter is still in love with Judy but could this merely just be an illusion. Dexter, whose only intentions right now in life seems to be: become part of the higher class and soon be able to golf on the course he’s worked on for so long. How could one woman ruin all of these dreams. Dexter sees her dressed in gold and when I say gold I mean gold. Gold all over… Dexter realizes that these spontaneous emotions are simply just an illusion and his love for Judy is merely fake. He does not love her for what is on the inside but only for her beauty and attraction something that relates to the higher class. Scott uses this imagery to show how much beauty and wealth can make a man fall back in love so quick. “The gates were closed, the sun was down and there was nothing
but the gray beauty of steel that with stands all time”(Fitzgerald). Its assumed that the author used this imagery to show how Dexter believes Judy’s desirability as a creature of eternal beauty was an illusion and his love for Judy is no more. In culmination the author best defined Dexter as a young man who was madly in love with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. What more could someone's dreams entail; meeting the love of his life while working on the biggest symbol of the story, the golf course. The author used this symbol to define Dexter’s hard working life and to make readers understand someone's real true love… Money. The author also uses imagery to better show the emotions Dexter feels towards his illusions of love and accomplishment. Dexter eventually finds his “Winter Dream” and does not let anyone get in the way of him completing his overall goal; to be apart of the wealthy higher class.
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.
Powerful Winter Imagery in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Ethan Frome, the title character of Edith Wharton's tragic novel, lives. in his own world of silence, where he replaces his scarcity of words with images and dreams and fantasies. There is striking symbolism in the imagery. predominantly that of winter, which connotes frigidity, detachment, bleakness.
Dreams prove as a powerful, motivating force, propelling an individual forward into real achievements in life. Conversely, dreams can transpire as blatantly artificial. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” depicts the story of Dexter Green, a young man who dreams of achievements and works hard in a real, non-illusionary world to win them. His work in this plain, unromantic world brings him ever closer to the dream world he so desperately wants, while at the same time the dreams show themselves as decaying or empty. Unfortunately, this does not cure him of dreaming and does not push him to abandon his dreams in favor of a healthier attitude.
Scott Fitzgerald showcases the American Dream and how success can lead to fortune, but not all people meet all their goals and sometimes “the dream” is just an illusion that leads to misfortune. “Of course, Dexter’s renunciation of the world that he sees Judy dominating leads to success in business and his conquest of the adult world, since he forgoes pleasure to concentrate on getting ahead. But even at the beginning of that conquest, the victory turns sour” (Fahey 147). Dexter the moment he saw Judy he became determined to become wealthy and marry the prettiest girl around, only then he would have reached the American Dream. “Because his winter dreams happened to be concerned at first with musings on the rich” (Fitzgerald). Dexter was obsessed with become part of the rich, he dreamed of being a golf champion, he went to a more prestige college even if it meant more debt, he bought a laundry company, and he tried to win the girl. When Dexter was a caddy he desperately wanted to be successful and wealthy; he wanted to feel the happiness it would bring to his life. Years later when Dexter beat T.A. Hedrick in golf it brought him little joy to his everyday life. Dexter was forced to realize while living in the middle class that money could not buy his happiness no matter how hard he strived in business. By the end of the story Dexter realized the American Dream was just an illusion and could never fully be
The short story of “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.
In the book Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main character, Dexter Green, chases unattainable ambitions of success, wealth, and the “ideal” woman. Throughout the book Dexter struggles with his ever changing, empty dreams. Although at first glance the reader might assume Dexter is solely trying to pursue the ideal woman, Judy Jones, a more in depth look reveals that through the attempt to obtain Judy’s affection, Dexter is trying to achieve the greater symbol she represents. Judy parallels a vast symbol of being born into privilege, affluence, and the embodiment of the “American Dream.” Through use of numerous troupes including foreshadowing, metaphors, and symbolism the narrator suggests to the reader that all of Dexter’s
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.
Using imagery as an useful writing strategy, F. Scott Fitzgerald explains how achieving the American Dream doesn’t ensure a happy life. On page 141, in chapter seven, the author writes, “In a little while I heard a low husky sob, and saw that the tears were overflowing [Tom’s] face.” This line, written after Tom discovers that his mistress had been killed, shows the immense pain Tom feels. Tom’s stature is usually big and hulking and the passage, describing a crying sad man, illustrates that Tom has been deeply affected. This example shows just one of the many complexities of the American Dream. Tom Buchanan, rich and successful, felt pain as everyone else. No
The American Dream is an ethos idealized by millions of people. It is an attitude and mindset that can promote success and prosperity throughout life. When it comes to the American dream, a significant part is the quest for money. As shown in classic American Literature such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the influence of money plays an important role throughout both novels. There are characters in both books that use money as a way of representing what their morals and values are. The decline of the American Dream is evident in both novels considering the negative effects money has on certain characters.
Winter Dreams There are many ways in which “Winter Dreams” is like and unlike a fairytale. “Winter Dreams” had the potential to have a fairy tale ending. Beginning the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald made the story seem predictable. The reader would have predicted a happy ending, like a fairytale. An ending where the ambitious young man gets the beautiful girl of his dreams.
Another form of symbolism in the story would be at the conclusion when the description of the Jones’ house is given “The gates were closed, the sun was gone down, and there was no beauty but the gray beauty of steel that withstands all time” (Fitzgerald 675). The dullness and dark manor in which Dexter describes the home, which was once so bright and vibrant to now be in, symbolizes the state of Judy Jones. The quote symbolizes Dexter Greens realization that his view on Judy Jones is merely an illusion. From the quote, I believe that Dexter is now older and has lived his ideal American Dream as well as strived for the love of Judy Jones. His description of the home ties in with Judy Jones’ present day appearance. The description of the home also makes him realize that what he thought of her to have been for all of those years was not the right conception. In the end Judy Jones faded beauty is the end of Dexter Green’s illusion. “Fitzgerald crafted the story so we perceive Judy’s beauty and Dexter’s dreams vanishing at the same time because both are an illusory” (Randell 126). Along with the vanishing of Judy’s beauty it seems as if Dexter’s desire for attaining wealth and high social status fades away as well. I believe that Fitzgerald’s intentions, as Randell quoted, was to use
Dexter had to keep himself from forgetting he cannot have Judy Jones. In the end of the story Dexter has come to a conclusion he could not have Judy, “When autumn had come and gone again, it occurred to him that he could not have Judy Jones. He had to beat this into his mind, but he convinced himself at last. He lay awake at night for a while and argued it over. He told himself the trouble and the pain she had caused him, he enumerated her glaring deficiencies as a wife”(p 974). While Dexter cared for Judy he felt that he need to forget her since he knew he could never really have her full attention. While he knew he could never have her he knew he could never have her he meet her again and falls for her all over again one last time and this time it was her that was convincing him to date once again. "I'm more beautiful than anybody else," she said brokenly, "why can't I be happy?" Her moist eyes tore at his stability--her mouth turned slowly downward with an exquisite sadness: "I'd like to marry you if you'll have me, Dexter. I suppose you think I'm not worth having, but I'll be so beautiful for you, Dexter"(p 977). While Dexter was not too sure how to feel he didn't know how to react to this, with Judy he
The philosopher Karl Marx once said, “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness” (Marx). Marx argues that social circumstances determine one’s value and belief. Therefore, in his short story “Winter Dreams”, F. Scott Fitzgerald supports this Marxist theory by exposing that the proletariat is oppressed by the bourgeoisie’s ideology that the goal of life lies in status and material success, wrongly leading the middle-class to pursue inappropriate goals and ultimately to lose personal identity as developed through vivid imagery, starting with depicting a proletarian’s dream, followed by his success and transformation by a materialist, and ending with his personal deception.
Scott Fitzgerald uses imagery when Dexter first meets Judy to emphasis the awe Dexter was in when he saw her. The narrator describes Judy by saying, “The spark, however, was perceptible. There was a general ungodliness in the way her lips twisted ,down at the corners when she smiled, and in the--Heaven help us!--in the almost passionate quality of her eyes. Vitality is born early in such women. It was utterly in evidence now, shining through her thin frame in a sort of glow.”(Fitzgerald 980). This excerpt is used to characterize Judy Jones physically and show that Dexter fell in love with Judy at first sight. The idea that men have a great desire for Judy can be backed by Kim Becnel when she says, “The "magic of [Judy's] physical splendor" causes the men to fear that if they drop out of the game, another of their lot will make off with a prize they will forever envy.”(Becnel). The narrator goes in depth to describe Judy’s smile as beautiful for a young child which helps the reader understand how Dexter felt about
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F. Scot. Fitzgerald, through his use of symbols, characters, and theme, displays for the reader a tale that provides a commentary on the American dream and more importantly on its corruption.