Winter Dreams Analysis

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Dying Dreams “Winter Dreams”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a coming of age short story, successful in its character building and profound dialogue. The narration focuses largely on the thoughts and emotions of Dexter Green, a boy from Minnesota whose father owns the “second-best grocery store in Black Bear” (1567). The title, “Winter Dreams”, refers to Dexter's youthful winter aspirations of becoming wealthy; surpassing his middle-class background. Throughout the story, Dexter describes the winter as “profoundly melancholy, hunted by ragged sparrows for the long season”, emphasizing the association of winter with the dead and dismal (1567, 69). Furthermore, it is through this dead and dismal description that Fitzgerald not only foreshadows the ultimate outcome of Dexter’s character, motivations, and nature but alludes to a darker, more sinister facet of the American Dream. Dexter's character is initially revealed when it is found that “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” (1567). Through the use of the simile, “poor as sin”, Dexter’s disapproval the idea of poverty is evidently found. Fitzgerald reveals Dexter's obsession with social rank through his blatant fixation on status. These feelings are further demonstrated in Fitzgerald’s use of the phrase,“second-best grocery store”, an emphasis on the proud tone of Dexter’s persona. Fitzgerald not only adopts Dexter's tone but also his fixation on status which further precursor Dexter’s future motivations while also reflecting his overall decline in character. In this way, Fitzgerald makes an argument against pursuing the American Dream as Dexter, a dreamer himself, is shown to decline in character throughout his youthful fixation on status. Fitzgerald also reveals
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