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. The characters in both “Winter Dreams” and The Great Gatsby share undeniable similarities and yet subtle differences that not only drive them together but also make them unique in their own way. Gatsby, like Dexter in “Winter Dreams”, yearned to make a name for himself and strove to do so. However, both characters did not have themselves in mind so much as they thought of the woman they loved more than any other. Gatsby and Dexter both chased their dreams. For Gatsby this dream was Daisy Buccanan, while for Dexter this dream was Judy Jones. Both of these characters, in search of their dream, created their own fortunes from a small town. …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald. Both Jay Gatsby and Dexter go through hell and high water, and no matter what happens, they both cling to this desperately helpless dream that they can marry the girl they have sought after their entire lives. “So he (Jay Gatsby) invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end” (Great Gatsby 98). Dexter and Gatsby base their lives around this dream, becoming incredibly wealthy in hopes of becoming everything the women want. Gatsby never came to realize how fruitless his efforts were, as he died before he could find out. However, Dexter faces reality when he is told Judy had gotten married. Dexter falls apart, realizing that his lifelong dream that he had given everything to achieve had been broken and