Women In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams

Sometimes we as humans think all we need is this specific thing in our life to make us happy, but sometimes down the road we realize what we thought was really gonna make us happy, is something we wouldn 't of thought of. This is where we find our true happiness. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the story “Winter Dreams”. The main character in this story is Dexter Green. This young boy works at a golf course as a caddy and as he is working he came across this eleven year old girl who is very demanding and rich.

Winter Dreams By F. Scott Fitzgerald is a short-story telling of a 14 year-old caddy named Dexter Green. In this narrative Dexter meet Judy Jones while working at his golf course. As the story continues on, Dexter becomes severely infatuated by Judy. The desire to be hers overcomes him so greatly, he works his way to wealth to be in the same social class as her, hoping to catch her attention and marry her someday. However Judy may be beautifully the outside as she ages, but her insides say differently. Throughout the entire story, Judy only cares for money, is cruel to Dexter, and proves to be selfish. These three characteristics can be proven through her words and actions in Winter Dreams.

There is a quote from an anonymous speaker that says, “It takes a couple seconds to say Hello, but forever to say Goodbye.” This quote can be related to the fictional characters, Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green. Both were men who met an extraordinary woman and could never seem to let her go. These are characters from the book The Great Gatsby, and the short story Winter Dreams, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest novels to come out of the Jazz Age in the 1920s. The two stories have similar plots. They are both about men who met a woman and fell in love with her, but in one way or another, she got away from them. They spent several years of their lives gaining money and rising up in society just to get her back.

Dexter Green, and Jay Gatsby were two very wealthy, young men who both strove to be in the highest attainable social class, and to marry the girl they have sought over for years. The characters from two of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels are near identical in many aspects. Although they are very similar, they are extremely different. Both characters had grown up very different. Both had attained wealth in two different way.

When she assured him that she had not kissed the other man, he knew she was lying--yet he was glad that she had taken the trouble to lie to him” (Winter Dreams, 5).This quote is showing how Judy would treat Dexter and how he would just still have a little hope that she cared about him. Just like in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby would hold onto something small like when Daisy would spend time with him or if she would lay her head on him. In both stories the men would hold onto some hope that they would be with the woman they wanted. Gatsby and Dexter would have done anything for Daisy and Judy.

“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. By the end of the story he cannot have the girl, and his dreams are ruined. The author illustrates Dexter Green as a wishful boy longing for what the future holds. Fitzgerald incorporates many symbols as one being solely Judy Jones. The author uses style in the story by separating the story into 6 sections. Fitzgerald in “Winter Dreams” depicts the fantasy of the American dream and how no matter how hard one works he may never achieve his dream.

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. As well as The Great Gatsby, the passage Winter Dreams, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has a similar theme. A poor man loves a wealthier woman and spends his life trying to get her. To be able

“That Bitter Dream” Minnesota is known for its cold weather; F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "winter dreams" takes place in Black Butte Lake, Minnesota. Dexter, the protagonists, is a fourteen-year-old caddy at the Golf Club. Dexter falls in love with eleven-year-old Judy Jones, and looks forward to have her. After some time when he is twenty-three years old, they start dating. Though Judy tricks Dexter and goes with another guy.

Everybody has their own dreams to fulfill, whether it is to become rich, famous, or chancing a loved one. But does everyone get to live their dreams? The short story, Winter Dreams demonstrated the tragic love story between Dexter and Judy. At first, Dexter’s dream was to become wealthy. However, when he met Judy at the age of fourteen, he fell in love with her and started to follow his “winter dreams” in order to fit into Judy’s world. Nevertheless, Judy couldn’t be able to give her heart to Dexter. Thus, he met and engaged to Irene Scheerer, a girl whom Dexter didn’t love as much as Judy. They broke off their engagement because Judy wanted Dexter to be with her. At the end of winter dreams, Dexter wasn’t be with Judy, and Judy married with another man. The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald used simile, imagery, and themes to express his point of views and also used symbolism to let the readers picture the images in their minds and also let the readers feel different emotions.

During the interview Saundra began to shut down and not be too responsive to what Judy was saying. Judy tried to get Saundra’s attention by asking is she lost her. I felt during this part of the interview that Judy was ineffective because Saundra began to get upset and Judy did not respond empathetically. For a few minutes Judy was missing the fact that Saundra was having a difficult time talking about it.

Shields proves this through the events Mrs. Turner has undergone and by the close-minded professor. The first act of ignorance is the first secret the readers learns about Mrs. Turner, the incident when she was nineteen in her hometown with a married man (p.148) This incident shows a lot about Mrs. Turner’s personality. The reader learns that when she got caught her first decision was to “creep out of the house at midnight and catch the bus to Winnipeg” (p.148) even though it is clear she does not have much money nor great navigation skills. Mrs. Turner’s impulse of leaving her hometown without a set plan is idiotic and clearly ignorant.

The passage, Winter Dreams, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, has the same theme. A poor man loves a wealthier woman and revolves his life around trying to get her. To be able to relate to these characters and truly get a feel and understand each characters actions in these novels, readers must use intellectual empathy to put themselves in their shoes to see how they would feel and react in the same situation. Gatsby sees Daisy as not only a woman whom he loves, but also a symbol of his American dream of being seen as “old money”. Dexter does not see Judy for how she truly is; he sees her how he wants her to be.

According to Helen Lawrenson, “If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted - there is practically nothing she can't do.” Women in history have been limited and bound in different aspects of their lives in the past. They are confined to meet certain and precise standards for marriage, to raise a family, and also in the work field. In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson, all women living during the flapper 1920’s style that embodied the real women of the time which F. Scott Fitzgerald (got?) his characteristics from. Ginevra King, Zelda Syra, and Edith Cummings influenced Fitzgerald’s view of the world and women throughout his life. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes growing freedoms

Scottie wants so badly for her to be Madeline that he dresses Judy up as her and takes her to places where he and Madeline had been even though Judy herself is an absolute antithesis of everything Madeline was. Despite her discomfort with these actions, she eventually gives in. Although, Scottie’s obsession with Madeline scares her, Judy’s need to be loved by him allows her to submit herself to his mania and give him control over her. Her eventual death is caused her own submission to Scottie.

Through the early to mid 1900s, the concept of striving to attain more than one is originally born with became predominant in most American societies. During this era, many authors, through literature, began expressing their concern with the rise in materialistic ideals and its effect on society and the individuals living within it, one being F. Scott Fitzgerald. Two of Fitzgerald’s widely-known works of literature, The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”, both heavily elaborate on the effects of the increase in materialism and the ultimate effects of attempting to achieve the American Dream; this is conveyed through the unhappiness of the Dexter and Gatsby despite their perseverance to acquire women of higher social statuses. These texts both reach the conclusion that the American Dream is not within reach of anyone. Fitzgerald’s representation of the unattainable American Dream is demonstrated in The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” through his portrayal of the materialistic nature of society as well as the characters’ failure to possess the women they love.