Winter Dreams

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams,” ambitious, “desirous” Dexter stands at the threshold between admiring “glittering things” and finding out that the “glittering things” he admires fade away sooner or later. Dexter‘s character throughout this short story, changes in many ways, from being unaware of what he really wanted in life to being aware of what he actually became.

Dexter in the story started off as a very young boy who worked as a caddy at a golf course. There he met Miss Jones for the very first time. Judy Jones was a beautiful, young woman who came from a glittery family, but was also very cunning with her “preposterous smile” . Dexter was very “neurasthenic” when it came to being with Miss Jones. In the beginning Dexter would be very shy but would always want to talk to her. She was the “no end of misery to a great number of men.”

As time elapses in the story, Dexter becomes an independent man but still thinks of Judy. He becomes much older and begins running laundry businesses. He became a man that people would call “Now there’s a boy.” Even though the people who knew him would say that about him, he still didn’t feel that “tremendous superiority.” He felt “mundane” as if he really had not achieved anything. What Dexter felt was “sinuous”. What he needed was a companion with whom he can listen to “Chin-Chin and The Count of Luxemburg and the Chocolate Soldier,” and he thought it was Miss Jones herself.

Both Judy and Dexter are not aware of what they really want out of their relationship together. Judy is confused because she had been with men of “graceful clothes and the deep tan of healthy summers,” and Dexter because he had always thought of Judy as his “beau.” Dexter is very feeble that he is willing to accept Judy’s lies even when he knows they are not the true. He accepts them because “he was glad that she had taken the trouble to lie to him.” Their relationship was a “moody depression” it would give Dexter a feeling of “uneasiness.” Even though Dexter felt this way, he always wanted to “start right” in everything and he always felt that his career would be a large matter in his future, something Judy would not want for herself. All Judy would want is to be known as “beautiful.” Having this thought