The Great Gatsby Winter Dreams

“Whenever you feel like criticising anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you’ve had” -F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald is a writer who has imposed himself and his life story into many of his characters. Most notably, his famous novel called The Great Gatsby is about a man who feels unhappy despite his wealth. However, there is another story in which Fitzgerald uses himself as the main character, a short story called “Winter Dreams”.

“Winter Dreams” is a story about a man's journey to the upper class society. The story starts with the main character, Dexter, a middle-class boy who works as a caddy during his childhood. Next in the story, Dexter is a young man and well

He first finds love while being stationed in Alabama after World War I is over. Aforementioned, her name was Zelda Sayre, a southern belle from Montgomery Alabama. Fitzgerald proposed not long after they first met and she said yes, however, he moved to Manhattan to work and earn a living in order to keep Zelda while she stayed at her parents’ home in Montgomery. A year later, Zelda grew tired of her Fiance’s unsuccessful struggle to make his fortune and called the engagement off. F. Scott Fitzgerald recognized the urgency and decided to publish a novel that he had begun in college. Literary critic Malcolm Cowley (1973) commented on the instant stating “As for the general attitude toward the rich that began to be expressed in ‘Winter Dreams,’ it is perhaps connected with his experience in 1919, when he was not earning enough to support a wife and Zelda broke off their engagement.” (p. 252). In other words, Cowley is trying to convey that Zelda was exploiting Fitzgerald for money. As previously stated, This Side of Paradise, became an instant hit and Zelda Sayre married him a week after the book was published. After that, she was a frequent inspiration for many characters in his writing. Despite this, and the birth of their first child, Zelda Fitzgerald grew bored of her husband and had an affair, forever tainting their marriage. Fitzgerald fell into alcoholism while his wife was diagnosed with

Fitzgerald may have even lived vicariously through his character by writing a brief paragraph about him leaving for war. Fitzgerald(1922) writes, “He returned to the west, handed over the management of the business to his partner and went into the first officers’ training camp in late April” (p. 978). Dexter joined the war one month after America joined while Fitzgerald never got to see a fight as he joined the army after the war had ended. F. Scott Fitzgerald even wrote about Dexter’s big break around the time that he was experiencing his success for his first novel. Moreover, he writes about Dexter achieving utmost success while in New York, the exact same place that Fitzgerald wrote his first novel and became an overnight