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 enough to live in. It is noted early in the story that "after college [Dexter] went to the city from which Black Bear Lake draws its wealthy patrons." The Black Bear area, then, is funded by wealthy visitors, and this is exactly the life that Dexter wants to distance himself from. He wants the "glittering things" in life, and people who possess those things do not live in Black Bear. They live in more fashionable places, like the city, and therefore Dexter begins to recreate his own narrative, fashioning for himself a life that is more "glittering" for his intended social circles.

This is why Dexter is relieved when he finds out he will not have to engage in small talk with Judy Jones's parents on the evening when Judy invites him to dinner. He surmises that the men who typically enjoy dinner with Judy Jones are like the men he met when he went to college, "with graceful clothes and the deep tan of healthy summers." And Dexter wishes that their background was also his background, yet "in acknowledging to himself that he wished his children to be like them he was admitting that he was but the rough, strong stuff from which they eternally sprang."

So Dexter lies because he struggles to reconcile his beginnings with his future. Dexter is greatly ambitious, designing his life so that he maximizes his economic potential. He feels that being associated with Black Bear would harm his image in social circles, so he invents a different hometown to be more socially impressive.

In Fitzgerald's story, Dexter Green is a young man who comes from limited economic circumstances, works hard, and becomes wealthy. He patterns himself after the wealthy people he had observed as boy, in his dress, for instance, as well as in his manners. Dexter tries hard to remake himself in the image of those he considers glamorous, the social "insiders."

Dexter was born in Keeble, described as a "Minnesota village," fifty miles north of Black Bear Village where he grew up. Dexter always claimed Keeble, rather than Black Bear, because it seemed more socially acceptable. Black Bear Village seemed unacceptable to him because it was filled with those who provided services for the wealthy class who inhabited Sherry Island nearby. Dexter observed about Keeble, "Country towns were well enough to come from if they weren't inconveniently in sight and used as footstools by fashionable lakes."

Dexter claims Keeble because he is ashamed to identify himself with Black Bear Village and those who lived there. Dexter remembers that his mother was a Bohemian peasant who had spoken in broken English all her life. His father owned the second-best grocery store. Dexter claims Keeble instead of Black Bear Village because he seeks to separate himself from the social class into which he was born.