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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

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