Similarities Between Dex Green And The Great Gatsby

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. Both had different a different love life scenario, and both of their lives finished out very differently. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, it is the story of Jay Gatsby and all of his greatness through the eyes of his close friend, Nick Carraway. Jay Gatsby was involved with the bootlegging business, and ties

Gatsby, at the beginning of The Great Gatsby, had told Nick about how successful he, and his family were, that he grew up with money, and that his family was also dead. That did not end up being the case as we later find out in the story. Gatsby had grown up very poor, unlike Dexter. Dexter did not lie about how he grew up. His family was in the middle class ranking because his father owned the second best grocery in the town. He had his side job for extra money, but he did not actually need the job. “Some of the caddies were poor as sin, and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green’s father owned the second best grocery-store in Black Bear- the best one was ‘The Hub’, patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island- and Dexter caddied only for pocket-money.” (Winter Dreams). Dexter grew up in a middle class family. They had money. They were living easily. He had not lied about how he grew up. Although, ever since he was a young caddie, he had dreamed of becoming wealthy, and being high on the social ladder. After college, he worked hard, and began a chain of laundromats. “I suppose he'd had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of

The two of them did everything, and would do everything for them. They thought they loved them, and one of the men even devoted his entire life to this woman. Both of the main characters live’s and choices surrounded these two women. Gatsby bought a house directly across from Daisy’s, and would throw these massive, elaborate parties just in hope she would come to one, and they would be reunited. Daisy never loved Gatsby to the extent that he loved her. She loved him, but it just was not enough. Dexter met Judy when he was only 13 out on the golf course, and he knew from that point that Judy was the one for him. When he grew older, and saw how she was, and how she manipulated men so they would never leave her, he did not want any part of that. He realized he was just being toyed with, something that Gatsby could never understand. “Oh, you want too much!"..... “I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once – but I loved you too." (The Great Gatsby). Gatsby loved Daisy so much. He did, and would do everything for her, but it just was never enough for Daisy. She saw through Gatsby, and everything he was made of. She knew she was too good for Gatsby, even though he had a huge house, with beautiful clothing, and furniture, but it just was not enough for her. She loved him, but not as much as she loved Tom. "Of course you could