ipl-logo

Similarities Between Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

1169 Words5 Pages

Allison Beckman
Mr. McGuirk
English III Honors
17 October 2014

Defining Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams”
As the Prototype of The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, focus in on human and society relationships. While fulfilling the characteristics of the well-known lifestyle of the 1920’s, often referred to as the Jazz Age, Fitzgerald takes the reader through the tragic life of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, as well as the life of Dexter Green in “Winter Dreams.” Jay Gatsby has a constant struggle with time; trying to re-obtain the past life he had with Daisy Buchanan while attempting to live the so-called American Dream. Dexter continuously works for prosperity and success but struggles with the …show more content…

Tom Buchanan, along with Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green all strive for the highest social class ranking possible as they think it will maximize their happiness and success. In The Great Gatsby, There is a definite distinction of class including the new money (Jay Gatsby), old money (Tom and Daisy Buchanan) as well as no money (Myrtle). Throughout the novel, hardships are evident in all of the classes, supporting that there is no perfect position to be in. Fitzgerald depicts the positive and negative affects of the social class division through the characters. He writes, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
’Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’… In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments” (1). Even from the start of the novel, this quote entails that some people of the society are aware of their social status and its importance like Nick Carraway, while others take their ranking for granted and are quick to make judgments of others. Tom and Gatsby are very flashy with their money, striving to show it off to others day by day. Gatsby incessantly uses his social class position to win over Daisy, and with no coincidence present; he is never able to have Daisy as his lover no matter how much power he obtains. In “Winter Dreams”, there is also a similar social class ranking. Dexter Green spends all his time building up his social class status to live up to his “golden future” that he imagines. Judy, similar to Daisy in The Great Gatsby speaks her mind about her feelings toward social class to Dexter. Fitzgerald writes, “But I’ve just had a terrible afternoon. There was a man I cared

Show More
Related

Essay Comparing Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

753 Words | 4 Pages

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald often referred to his short story “Winter Dreams” as a prototype to his famed novel The Great Gatsby. This is because the two stories share awfully similar themes and characters with each other. The two stories differentiate from each other in various ways as well. Reading these two great works really depicts the similarities between the two.

Read More

The Great Gatsby American Dream

660 Words | 3 Pages

The novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitz Gerald embodies many themes. A major in the story is the pursuit of can be labelled the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. By having money, a car, a big house, nice clothes and a happy family symbolizes the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

140 Words | 1 Pages

Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby and Dexter Green from Winter Dreams both encounter the dangers of being driven by their desire to achieve the American Dream and the pursuit of their unrealistic infatuations. However, while Dexter’s ambitions for success are driven by his own desire to work hard and attain financial freedom, Gatsby’s ambition for success is derived entirely from his infatuation with Daisy Buchanan, a beautiful and charming girl he met and fell in love with in his late 20s. Dexter’s values and willingness to take initiative for his own life before the life of others is what differentiates him from Gatsby’s delusional characteristics which ultimately lead to his death. Comparing the characters of both Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green

Read More

Compare And Contrast Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

1221 Words | 5 Pages

Characters in novels can have obsessions with people, the same as in the world readers live in today. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the main, male character, Gatsby, is obsessed with a woman named Daisy Buchanan. In the passage Winter Dreams, Dexter, the main male character, is obsessed with a woman, Judy Jones. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote both of these novels/ passages. The Great Gatsby is a story about a man revolving part of his life around trying to achieve his American dream by conforming to a woman and society 's standards.

Read More

The Great Gatsby And Winter Dreams

1376 Words | 6 Pages

The Great Gatsby is a story about a man who has revolved part of his life around trying to achieve his American dream by conforming to a woman and society 's standards. As well as The Great Gatsby, the passage Winter Dreams, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has a similar motif; a poor man

Read More

Financial Success In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams

462 Words | 2 Pages

n F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” financial success was Dexter’s ambition but Judy Jones was his obsession. From a young age, Dexter dreamed of joining the ranks of the wealthy men he caddied for at the country club. He wanted to be more than the other young men and proved that by choosing a prestigious college where he was uncomfortable with his lack of spending money. By the time he was in his early twenties, he was well on his way to financial success with his business acumen. His small laundry business quickly grew as did his wealth.

Read More

Effects Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby

1042 Words | 5 Pages

By portraying both Gatsby and Dexter as taking great lengths to achieve their dreams, but however ultimately failing, Fitzgerald implies that striving for more than what one is given generally results in not only eventual failure, but also a decay in moral values. Both pieces of literature demonstrate the concept that hard work cannot always guarantee success, with success primarily defined as attaining the American

Read More

Greediness In The Great Gatsby

601 Words | 3 Pages

Thesis: Fitzgerald conveys the two groups of old and new money through greediness and their lives growing up. Throughout the book, greediness is conveyed through both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Jay Gatsby is presented at first as a poor farmer who was fascinated with Daisy. Jay Gatsby is shown as new money with the occurring wealth of his drug stores and a bootlegging business. Jay Gatsby’s constant want of being rich never paid off since his relationship with Daisy fails, “I can’t speak about what happened five years ago because I didn’t know Daisy then — and I’ll be damned if I see how you got within a mile of her unless you brought the groceries to the back door.

Read More

Examples Of Social Class In The Great Gatsby

537 Words | 3 Pages

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald 179). This quote captures the advantages the upper class has because of their money. Tom and Daisy’s actions left three people dead, yet they received no punishments .They put all their baggage on the lower class, and left them to pick up the pieces.     In The Great Gatsby, the theme of social class is very significant in the book. Scott F. Fitzgerald used the theme of social class to show the reader that it plays a much bigger role in life.

Read More

Examples Of Duality In The Great Gatsby

884 Words | 4 Pages

The 1920’s was a very interesting time in United States history. After all World War I had ended and many Americans did not realize that the Great Depression was in the near future, so the 1920’s fell between these two dramatic events. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby teaches many morals, but none more important than the duality of the 1920’s. Duality is evident in Gatsby's dreams, his death, his lover Daisy, his wealth, and his parties, which all reflect the duality of the 1920’s. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald makes the concept of achieving the American dream seem improbable.

Read More

Comparison Between Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

1374 Words | 6 Pages

Characters in novels can have obsessions with people, the same as in the world readers live in today. In the book, The Great Gatsby, the main, male character, Gatsby, is obsessed with a woman named Daisy Buchanan. In the passage Winter Dreams, Dexter, the main male character, is obsessed with a woman, Judy Jones. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote both of these novels/ passages introducing the same theme. The Great Gatsby is a story about a man who has revolved part of his life around trying to achieve his American dream by conforming to a woman and society 's standards.

Read More

The Role Of Wealth In The Great Gatsby

747 Words | 3 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby describes the life of Jay Gatsby in the 1920’s. The novel shares his love story and his loneliness. A major question the author raises is how does wealth impact class structure and society? Fitzgerald answers this question through the distinction between “New rich” and “Old rich” and the significance of East and West Egg.

Read More

Literary Analysis Of Winter Dreams

921 Words | 4 Pages

This quote helps to provide some background on how Dexter is given a idiosyncratic persona. Essentially, the literary devices in “Winter dreams” are used to help provide each character with a personality. The use of imagery in this short tale is imperative to detailing the characters and their conversations. The story uses imagery various times to better convey the setting and plot of the story.

Read More

Literary Analysis Of Winter Dreams

1560 Words | 7 Pages

“Winter Dreams” was published in 1926. Francis Scott Fitzgerald is most well-known for his novel “The Great Gatsby”. A common theme he is known for is the American dream and how it is corrupt. Fitzgerald enjoys writing about the poor boy chasing after the rich girl. This story is about a man named Dexter Green trying to achieve the American dream by obtaining the girl he adores.

Read More

The American Dream In The Great Gatsby Essay

1133 Words | 5 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

Read More

More about Similarities Between Winter Dreams And The Great Gatsby

Related Topics

Open Document