The American Dream In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams

The concept of the American dream has been related to everything from religious freedom to a nice home in the suburbs. It has inspired both deep satisfaction and disillusioned fury. The phrase elicits for most Americans a country where good things can happen. However, for many Americans, the dream is simply unattainable. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Green, a hardworking young man born into the middle class, becomes wrapped up in his pursuit to obtain wealth and status in his life. These thoughts and ideas represent Dexter’s fixation on his “winter dreams,” or, the idea of what the American Dream means to him: gaining enough wealth to eventually move up in social class and become somebody, someday. As Dexter attempts to

As long as Dexter is able to keep Judy and the American Dream alive in his thoughts, he is satisfied. However, because he is forced to admit the reality that Judy is no longer the woman that she once was, “the dream [is] gone. Something [was] taken from him” (Fitzgerald 1025). He is robbed of his visions of perfection because he is no longer able to imagine Judy as she once was: beautiful, lively, and powerful. The business associate that delivers the news of Judy’s new, less than ideal lifestyle claims that, “she has lost her beauty and vitality. [Dexter’s] dream shatters and breaks down. [He is] overcome by a profound sense of loss” (Perkins). He is mourning the loss of not only Judy, but the loss of his dream of living in the exclusive world of the wealthy and successful. Because he becomes consciously aware of his fragmenting “winter dreams,” he discovers that “their greatest value was in the dreaming; and now he has lost the only way left to preserve that priceless capacity” (Pike 90). Because his vision of Judy is destroyed, he can no longer hold on to the value of his dreams; he is forced to relinquish the meaning that these illusions once held. By realizing the hollowness behind his winter dreams, Dexter is forced to accept the image of Judy as a less than perfect

Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more” (Fitzgerald 1025). He is fully comprehending for the first time that he will never reach his fantasies of living among the upper class and possessing the kind of wealth and “happiness” that members of that class possess. While he tries to grasp this heartbreaking concept, he “watches his beautiful vision crumble; he is forced to admit the illusory nature of his winter dreams” (“Winter Dreams”). His dreams no longer hold a genuine meaning to him; they are nothing but worthless illusions that will no longer allow him to fantasize after success. As Dexter continues to process his now meaningless goals for his life, he realizes that he “finally and forever loses not only Judy and his love for her, but also his ability to keep alive in his imagination the best part of his youth and its winter dreams” (Burhans). His lifelong search toward meaning and hope for a wealthy, successful life has evaporated; he can no longer even keep this dream existing in his mind. By failing to achieve wealth, success, and status (the