F. Scott Fitzgerald Winter Dreams: Love Can't Be Bought with Money

Winter Dreams, a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, describes the story of a covetous man named Dexter Green. Basically, when he was a young boy at the age of just fourteen years old, he came across a lovely girl, Judy Jones. This encounter made Dexter decide to quit his job as a caddy in attempt to become the perfect man for Judy. His “winter dreams” are to become extremely wealthy in order to improve his social class. Judy inspired Dexter to follow his dreams to make lots of money and of course, get the girl. As you can probably tell, his dreams are driven by fortune and prosperity. This shows the reader exactly how materialistic and greedy Dexter is.

It all began when Dexter started working as a caddy. He had big dreams of living a rich, luxurious life just like the members he caddied for at the time. One day while he was working his came across Judy Jones whom was accompanied by her nurse. She asked him to carry her clubs, but Dexter could not leave his post. This situation cause Judy to throw a tantrum and attempt to attack her nurse with the clubs. Once the boss came back Dexter could finally be Judy’s caddy. Dexter decided to quit this job. Impulsive actions such as this were due to his seemingly impossible dreams of being wealthy.

A couple of years after college, Dexter decided it was time to invest in something, which in this case was a laundry business. Obviously not the most glamorous occupation or company in the world, but it did earn him tons of money. This allowed him to start hanging out with the wealthy people around town. Interestingly, one day Dexter encounters Judy once again. They spot each other while they were each on rafts in Black Bear Lake. Deter and Judy have a little chitchat and she ends up asking him to dinner. Undoubtably, this made Dexter extremely excited and he excepts her kind invitation. At this dinner he notices that she appears to be a bit under the weather. He questioned her and her response explained that she was upset because the man she aspired ended up having a very low income. Dexter made sure to ensure Judy that he had money because he wanted her to like him. Once again this shows exactly how greedy he is.

The two fall in love, but that only lasted a little while because she cheats on him with other men. About seven years later, Dexter is informed that Judy has married another man. This hurt him because it forced him to realize that his dreams were crushed. The woman he once loved and worked so hard to impress is no longer available to him. She is not the beautiful girl she used to be. He no longer has a goal to work towards. He has the money, but not the love. Dexter thought that being wealthy would help him get the wife her wanted and make him happy, but that ended up not being the case.

His greed made him desire things in life that do not fulfill an individual's deep down desire for love and companionship. Wealth does not equal happiness. The “American dream” or his “winter dreams” focused on making money. The downfall of the situation teaches readers, and of course Dexter, that you cannot buy happiness. Being able to purchase and own nice things is wonderful, but being wealthy did not get Dexter the girl he wanted. The sad reality is that she did not care about him at all. It was probably best that they did not get married in the end because it would have been extremely unhappy. Judy only wanted men for their wealth and Dexter wanted wealth to get Judy.