Winter Dreams

Dexter Green is an ambitious person who wishes to one day golf with the wealthy individuals he caddies for as a young man. He is attracted to wealth and also becomes infatuated with Judy as a...

The title "Winter Dreams" is symbolic of Dexter Green's future ambitions that are never realized, but which always occupy his mind. Winter is a season when much of nature lies dormant. Likewise, in...

Dexter quits working as a caddy in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Winter Dreams" when he is at the top of his game. Dexter is known as the best caddy at the club, but after seeing Judy Jones...

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses figurative language such as similes, metaphors, and symbolism in Winter Dreams. As we read, we can make note of the figurative language. Similes and metaphors are both...

At the beginning of the short story "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dexter's views about the American dream are connected with ideals of fame and fortune. When he is still a caddy, he...

Ambition is one prevalent theme in "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Dexter Green dreams of breaking free of his humble origins and becoming a part of the society of those who frequent the...

In “Winter Dreams,” each of the four seasons symbolizes a different stage and aspect of Dexter’s aspirations to wealth and an upper class status. The cyclical seasonal calendar parallels the...

For Dexter, Judy Jones is the epitome of the "glittering things and glittering people" of the world of wealth that he covets. It is around her that Dexter creates his "winter dreams." When he first...

Dexter has grown up in close proximity to wealth and the access it provides, but he is the son of a small grocery store owner, serving as a caddy for the wealthy men in town. He can witness...

The second time Dexter meets Judy Jones, she happens across his golf foursome after hitting one of his group in the stomach with her golf ball. Dexter recognizes her immediately, but she doesn't...

Dexter's real reason for quitting his caddying job is that he's deeply affected by his first encounter with the young Judy, and he has to do something about these strong feelings right away: But...

The winter in Minnesota is bleak for Dexter; he describes living in it as "a feeling of profound melancholy." Nonetheless, it offers him time and solitude to reflect on the direction he wants his...

Dexter's dreams in "Winter Dreams" are dreams of having a better life and rising above the station that he was born into. He dreams of being a golf champion, stepping from an expensive automobile...

For Dexter, Judy represents all that glitters. That is, she is the embodiment of ambition and success, money, and beauty. That's what Dexter wants, and that's why he never sees her as she truly is....

The disillusionment featured in the short story revolves around Dexter's belief that happiness can be attained through gain and want, without some type of moral foundation that serves as a bedrock...

I'm not sure Judy ever took their engagement seriously. She flirts with other men and frequently goes off alone with them. After more than a year of watching this kind of behavior, Dexter finally...

We first hear about these fantastical "winter dreams" early in the story: October filled him with hope which November raised to a sort of ecstatic triumph, and in this mood the fleeting brilliant...

Dexter Green changes in several very significant ways in the story. As a boy, he lives a working-class life in a working-class community, one that provides services for the wealthy people who live...

Dexter has grown up around people with more money and higher social status than his family, who were grocers. The years that Dexter spent caddying at the golf club brought him into contact with...

It is important that the reader mainly sees Judy through Dexter Green's eyes, which admire Judy less for who she is than for what she represents: the upper class to which Dexter wishes to belong....

At the beginning of Part II of Fitzgerald's short story, the narrator suggests that Dexter Green has "winter dreams" of not just achieving financial success, but he dreams most of all of "the...

When Dexter Green first sees Judy Jones, she is only eleven; however, he is struck by the beauty of this girl and "winter dreams" of attainable beauty and of being rich begin to dictate his life....

In the first episode, we are told that teenager Dexter Green is known as one of the best caddies at the Sherry Island Golf Club. From this, we can infer that he spends his days in the company of...

If Judy Jones had not reappeared in Dexter's life on the night of the University Club dance, it is likely that he would have married Irene Scheerer and had the children he imagined hearing her call...

In "Winter Dreams," Dexter longs to obtain the favor of a girl named Judy Jones. But in every meeting and every opportunity with her, she seems to draw him just close enough—and then run in a...

The classic short story "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells of a golf caddy who overcomes his humble origins and becomes rich through a chain of laundries he owns. He meets a spoiled rich...

"Winter Dreams" is a modernist text in that it advances a radically subjective view of the world through the actions of Judy and Dexter. As a literary movement, modernism arose out of the aftermath...

You could write a thesis statement which argues that the pursuit of the American Dream is a fool's errand when it is based on external notions of success. In Dexter Green's case, he believes that...

I love that word "entanglement" as a description of Judy and Dexter's relationship. It's perfect for them: Judy keeps drawing Dexter in with her charms and beauty, filling his head with thoughts of...

Dexter is a dynamic character, meaning he changes in a significant way by the time the story ends. Most main characters in a story are dynamic, because most stories involve meeting challenges,...

He is "successful" in making money. Evidence: "He made money." He is successful because he wants to impress people.When he first meets Judy, he is "confident. Evidence:...

The story problematizes whatever it is we mean by the phrase “American dream.” In a conventional sense, Dexter’s story, of rising from the son of immigrants to the wealthy owner of a string of...

"Winter Dreams" is, in part, about the illusory nature of beauty and the difference between beauty and reality. It's set primarily at a Sherry Island country club and in the nearby town of Black...

Dexter Green is infatuated with Judy Jones from the very first time he sees her on the golf course when he is fourteen and she is eleven in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Winter Dreams." She is...

Dexter's characterization throughout the story largely depends on his thoughts and emotions, not on his physical appearance. But we know for certain that he dresses well, and we can infer that he's...

When Devlin first mentions that Judy's looks, at twenty-seven, are "all right," Dexter finds his assessment ludicrous, protesting that "she was a great beauty." He already knows that she has been...

Fitzgerald's stories often portray young men in love with women who are beautiful, unusual, and unattainable. They are not unattainable because they are not interested in romance; in fact the...

Judy is less a person for Dexter than a kind of ideal, a thing or way of being that he desires to attain. It is her stubborn subjectivity, however—the fact of her living her own life, independent...

I think that Fitzgerald's short story gives a great amount in terms of describing the Judy's materialist pursuits. One of the best instances of this would be when Judy and Dexter are talking after...

One of the symbols that appears in the story "Winter Dreams" is light. On the day that Dexter first sees the beautiful Judy Jones grown up, he sees the light of a harvest moon. When he goes...

Like other women in the Fitzgerald canon, Judy Jones has been idealized by the male protagonist, in this case Dexter. The indifferent description given of her by the man "from the Middle West"...

The ultimate destruction of Dexter's dreams occurs in the final section of this brilliant story when he hears news of Judy Jones, the glittering golden girl that has formed a central part of his...

In the short story "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the protagonist Dexter Green comes from a middle-class background but aspires to rise in society. The story tells of Dexter's business...

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams," we follow the life of Dexter Green. The story is told in three different parts and at three different segments of Dexter's life. When he is 14 the story...

Black Bear, Dexter's actual hometown, symbolizes all the things he tries to distance himself from in adulthood. It is a "footstool," used by the wealthy for its resources, but not fashionable...

While the narration in "Winter Dreams" is a standard third-person omniscient point-of-view, an unusual aspect is the way the narrator takes an active role in the telling, rather than the normal...

Dexter has already been in love with the beautiful and mercurial Judy Jones when he dates Irene Scheerer. He is very close to becoming engaged to Irene—not because he truly loves her, but because...

The previous Educator has explained the fickle and shallow nature of Dexter Green's obsession with Judy Jones. I refrain from calling it love, despite their engagement, because Dexter never really...

The questions that relate to Dexter's choices between Irene and Judy capture the possible tension between happiness and ambition. Fitzgerald makes a clear case that Dexter could have found...

When Judy realizes that her golf ball has struck Mr. Hedrick in his stomach, Judy offers a terse, insincere apology, then defends herself by reminding the men that she had called out "Fore!" (which...