Introduction and thesis
Dexter is a young man with humble background who catches works hard through university, borrows money with his degree certificate as security and works on a laundry business that expands and makes him one of the richest young men in the region. He is given a pass to the golf club by one Mr. Hart, where he feels comfortable despite the fact that he does not belong to that class of society. He sneaks for some moments to a piano playing from the other end, and his solitude is distracted by a girl called Judy, of affluent means, who has left a date, a man who thinks that she is the best thing ever. What follows is a love that buds, never flowering actually, as Judy takes plays cards with her boyfriends, even one day going away with another man, an act that angers Dexter. Judy is a wild lady, and Dexter is a classic hard worker, and they both converge at the point of love, then it collapses. It suffices; therefore, to say that the story, Winter Dreams, captures the attention of readers because of Dexter's distorted American dream, Judy's vanity and the failed love between them Dexter and Judy (mio karasa)
Dexter's distorted American Dream
Dexter wanted to be rich, but his idea of richness did not border on belonging to the upper class, but rather to having fine things in life. Ideally, he did not want to be like the rich men; rather, he wanted the things that richness brought. Putting this idea into perspective, we learn that the idea of Dexter about richness was motivated by his background (his mother was a poor peasant who could not stitch a few sentences) and his father had to struggle to take him to school. That means Dexter has the mettle and hunger to success, but he did not like the lives of rich men in the golf club. Technically, Dexter appreciated the richness and the ability to afford whatever he demanded in life, but he did not like the kind of lives that were led by the rich men. Perhaps it was the exclusivity and condescension that the rich had on the rest of the people in the society that bore Dexter down. Dexter achieved his ideals and dreams of becoming a rich man (after he borrowed $1000 that he used to expand a laundry business to become the largest in the region, making him the richest kid) but his mind does not settle, as he has new winter dreams. His richness saw him get pass for exclusive places, including the gold course where he played with three men of good standing. He was spurred to material wealth by his winning mentality (as a caddy-player he never lost a ball) and his ability to stay ahead of his competitors (he usually defeated the men of the golf course with ease). The transition from a poor young boy to the richest twenty-seven-year-old in Black Bear had a lot to do with his education. In the university he had become an investments guru, getting approached by the rich kids and people to teach basic investment strategies, a network that won him, friends, from whom he borrowed the $1000 that he used to expand his small laundry business. He had the art of perfection, earned from his poor background (normally, poor kids have to work harder) and his caddy playing techniques. He understood the importance of mastering a game, by learning the tricks and perfecting on the weaknesses of a competitor. Dexter had sprung to success singlehandedly, and that gave him a feeling of superiority over the other men in the golf club who had inherited wealth from family. He mastered the skills of washing clothes without making them shrink, and within a short time, even the wives of the rich people took lingerie to him for washing. From an outer perspective, Dexter's success paints a picture of America as a country of equal opportunity for people from all walks of life. A poor boy can learn his threads and make enough money to qualify the company of the upper class. As Dexter notes, some of the privileges enjoyed by kids of the rich people will be enjoyed by his children, because he was not grown into the affluent lifestyles of the rich. His ideas of his children becoming legitimate members of the upper-class rest in the fact that they will not have memories of poverty and struggle, like Dexter. His ability to make wealth though business is manifested again in New York after he left his laundry business to the partner (to manage) and went to war. He was said to have grown wealthy in the city of New York (SparkNotes).
Judy Jones, A peacock’s woman
Judy Jones is the most present character in the story, and she comes out like a peacock's woman, attracting the men like a magnet. When she meets Dexter at the age of eleven, she calls him ‘boy' twice, until the point where Dexter is sure that he is the one being addressed. Later, when she hits Mr. T.A. Hedrick with a golf ball, she did not take it into a note, but, in a funny turn of events, she was just sad that the ball had hit an object, stealing a win from her. In the evening, she encroaches into Dexter's privacy, in her motor boat, and even gathers the audacity to invite him for dinner the following day. We learn that she is sad because she came to know that a man she had considered for love was broke (though she notes that she was not deep in love enough to survive a broke man) (Hinton). At that moment, she asks Dexter about his wealth, perhaps very keen not to repeat her mistake of falling for a broke man again. Judy is a regular character in the upper-class Black Bear, and she has a string of men who she balances off with care and precision. Dexter has thought of himself as a winner when he kissed Judy only less than twenty-four hours after she had parted with her boyfriend, only for him to face the same treatment less than a week later when Judy leaves him for a fun escapade with another man. She lies that she did not kiss the man, and Dexter finds himself flattered by the idea of Judy making an effort to lie, meaning that she cared. Judy is seen in the clubs with imminent frequency, to the tune that, whenever Dexter wanted to see her, he would just pop in in joints that he knew she used to turn up. Sometimes he would find her with other men, and she would give him casual greetings. In an era when women were passive and conservative, Judy is a tiger; wild and domineering. She was only too aware of her magnetic beauty, and when a new boy came to town, all dates were canceled in the favor of the new boy. Her unapologetic desire for attention, and winning, made her a thief of men because she destroyed other people's relationships without offering a guarantee of staying true to the relationship. Dexter parted with Irene after he met Judy in the club on the night before engaging Irene, and Judy floated the idea of marriage that caught Dexter's attention. Dexter dropped the idea of marrying Irene, angering her and her parents, who had known him since childhood. Judy presents the emergence of the modern woman, an offshoot of the First World War that created a shortage of workers, making companies start hiring women. She stands out for the new world order, playing her love life like a man. Traditionally, it is men who were known to have many love or sexual partners, and women were required to be calm and conservative and passive, always playing to the rules of men. Scott presents Judy as a Trojan horse, strong and independent, keeping the men at bay, testing their patience, and ‘donating' an hour or two of her attention whenever she thought that some guy wanted to give up, swinging them back to confusion. Ironically, though, she ends up a victim of her own game, when she gets married to Mr. Simms, who ‘domesticates’ her and plays around with other women. Dexter’s biggest winter dream, winning the heart of Judy, closes down like a bad act, to darkness, making him a sad man for the first time in his life, even contemplating getting drunk.
Dexter’s failed love to Judy
Dexter's love to Judy is a classic example of blindness, love based on imaginations and fantasies, as opposed to reality. He thinks that he loved her on first sight, and sticks to that idea for more than years, without understanding the nature of love as loyal and respectful, and precarious on the other end of the rope. Dexter should have learned from Judy's behaviors and demeanors, the way she changed men every weekend, and her sense of control. Dropping Irene for Judy's promise was considerably stupid, synonymous with the dog and meat-borne in water allegory, where the dog dropped the meat in its mouth to chase its shadow in the river that looked bigger. Also, Judy plays as a demoralizer to Dexter, making him drop his dreams of building a big company to have access to all fine things in life. At one point, Dexter resolves to vend his washing venture and go to New York, because he did not find happiness in Black Bear. The behavior of Judy can be compared with the modern call girl game, where the woman has no sense of loyalty but takes in the man who has the highest bid. Dexter had grown up a very hardworking man chasing the American dream, and getting it, to some extent, with the success of his laundry business that made him the richest young man in that part of the country. However, all his hard work was wasted in an insincere love life that kept him at the tipping point, one day giving up and moving on with life, only to get tempted the next day, cyclically, until the war saved him. It was this love that made him lose his passion and energy to chase the American dream, as it made him run out of gas. The story of Dexter and Judy is a metaphor actually about the dark side of the American dream, the struggle by average Americans to make it to the good life, only to find that the promise of the dream is an empty casket. For instance, Dexter dreamt of becoming wealthy, but when he played golf at the Sherry club, he thought about the rich people as undeserving of respect, as much as he did reserve. The idea of wealth makes sense to people of poor backgrounds only if it translates to the betterment of living standards of people in the society. Moreover, the life of Judy, a girl of decent origin, paints a bad image of Americans of the upper class as lacking in morals and demeanors, so much so, that the realization makes Dexter lose the energy and motivation to belong to the upper class. The use of the word ‘winter’ in the title of the story sets the reader for a bumpy ride, where he or she discovers that the love between Judy and Dexter plays cold like ice, and takes all the warmth in Dexter. The fact that Judy married an average man who mistreated her shows the irony of life, and can also be seen as a failure of the female gender. In perspective, Judy tried living like a man, and her failure was catastrophic, despite a short-lived success in doing so.
Conclusion
People always struggle with love and dreams, and, more often than not, the two forces clash at a point of aspiration. On one hand a young man or lady has the motivation to break the glass ceiling and become rich, attaining the American dream of self-sufficiency and abundance, while, on the other end, he or she has to deal with personal needs of love and appreciation. These issues come into question with the idea of marriage, where the debate about working on a career or settling for a family disturbs many Americans. From the story, ‘winter dreams’, we see the origin of the American dream, a desire to succeed and solve problems in the society, hampered by a top class that does not care, that is loose and immoral. The turbulence of the upper class brings challenges to all the people in America; both rich and poor. For instance, the 2008 world economic crisis was a result of the activities of rich people in America who own the corporate companies that designed subprime loans that could not be serviced. Quite ironically, the rich people ran free after the crisis, and the poor were left to grapple with debts and poverty (“American Living Standards: Threats and Challenges”). From the story, the inequalities between the rich and the poor are examined, with poor people coming out as moralists who suffer in the hands of the rich. While the rich do not work hard for their incomes (as they are seen spending a lot of time on the golf course), the poor toil from dawn to dusk, serving the rich masters, and what they get is a judgment on their material wealth. To some extent, the upper class is not aware of the problems of the people in the lower classes, as Judy is seen to be sincerely stressed by the news of her boyfriend admitting to being broke (“RE: American Dream”). Maybe, if it were a girl from the middle or lower class, she would have kept up with the boyfriend and help him in working hard for his dreams. The unapologetic nature of which the upper class deals with the poor is seen with the carefulness chosen while admitting members to the golf club. Dexter is selected by Mr. T.A, who had admired his skills for a long time, especially when he watched Dexter playing caddy. That admission into the golf club, in a funny turn of events, contributed to Dexter’s lack of motivation and energy to chase the American dream, as he thought of the golf men as undeserving of praise and respect (RANDELL).
Works Cited
“American living standards: Threats and challenges.” Choice Reviews Online 26.08 (1989): 26– 4567–26–4567. Web.
Hinton, Laura. “No. 25 from ‘winter dreams’ (dirge).” Feminist Studies 31.1 (2005): 194. Web.
SparkNotes. Winter dreams. 2016. Web. 2 June 2016.
mio karasa. “Winter Dreams Review.” YouTube. YouTube, 1 Aug. 2014. Web. 2 June 2016.
RANDELL, TIM. “Metafiction and the Ideology of Modernism in Fitzgerald’s ‘Winter Dreams.’” The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review 10.1 (2012): 108–129. Web.
“RE: American dream.” Oz 15.1 (1993): n.pag. Web.
