The Wrapped Golf Ball: A Marxist Literary Criticism Essay

Dexter starts as a lower class and Judy starts as an upper class when they first interact. Expectations are assumed, such as the upper class sees the lower class as servants and the lower class sees upper class as ridiculous. When they meet in the middle, they conflict in their lower and upper classes. After Dexter leaves for college, Judy stays in the upper class and he slowly joins the upper class. When he comes back home, he and Judy interact and become friends. However, when Dexter realizes that Judy misuses him and treats him badly, he leaves her even though he loves her. Because he’s part of the upper class and is able to, Dexter goes to parties and clubs where he forgets about her and mingles with other high class members, eventually finding a fiancee named Irene Scheerer. Soon, Judy comes back looking for the Dexter, “I wish you’d marry me.” This is an example of collision between classes. Judy now recognizes how rich Dexter really is and wants him. After the war, Dexter is talking to a man named Delvin who mentions the wife of one of his friends, “‘Judy Simms,’ said Delvin with no particular interest; ‘Judy Jones she was once.’” Delvin mentions how he is sorry for her, which surprises Dexter. He is told Judy married into the lower class to a man who “drinks and runs around.” In Winter Dreams, the lower and upper class characters interact, meet, conflict, and soon split. Judy Jones and Dexter Green have

What is it like to have a dream that makes you feel alive, that gives you another reason to rise and to strive in the morning and throughout the rest of your life? During the 1930’s this was often found within migrant workers who were searching for “The American Dream” of, at the time of the Great Depression, land, wealth, and liberty. Sadly, most people failed to find “The American Dream” and ended up isolated and empty. Dreams are the reason people chose to suffer this pain. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author, John Steinbeck, has demonstrated through dreams and false hope that they cause more trouble than good.

Today, it is more evident than ever that there are deep divisions within modern society along the lines of race, class and gender. These divides are highlighted by recent protests, riots and movements. These issues are relevant in modern society as well as in two famous stories. Both F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men use character development to make commentary toward these points. Fitzgerald’s novel covers the tumultuous journey of Nick Carraway through the swanky social elite of the 1920’s. Steinbeck’s text covers the opposite end of the spectrum, detailing the experiences of George and Lennie, ranchers during the great depression. While also providing a riveting and captivating plot, these seemingly antithetical tales both develop their respective characters to be normal, everyday people who face difficult problems because of their class.

The author clearly portrayed that Dexter had lost his ultimate dream. It was gone! There was nothing left except for his amazing memories; reminiscences of a woman that he never truly had to begin with. He came to that realization in this instance, and frantically desired what he had lost, and what he never actually attained…

With the addition of nameless butlers and servants throughout the narrative, a sense of the wealthy class’ uncaring attitude towards those of lower social standings or positions is established, and is employed to develop the unattainable idea of moving up on the social ladder, and achieving all one’s ever wanted through hard work. Fitzgerald’s inclusion of descriptions of Gatsby’s “blue lawn” after his death serves as a reminder of the romanticized dream Gatsby worked so hard to attain, when in reality, it was a realistic illusion that was unraveled within one summer. Just as the “green light” began to fade, so did the American Dream with Fitzgerald; with the description of the slowly waning “green light” comes the struggle by both Nick and Fitzgerald to define what the future really means, and to explain the crumbling foundation of the American Dream that has us trying to “run faster, stretch out our farther,” even as one is held back by the chains of the past. Despite the hard work that was exerted for years upon years by Gatsby, just as the American Dream slipped from his fictional grasp, it slowly fades from

F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his life experience in his works. He explains, ‘that was always my experience-- a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy 's school; a poor boy in a rich man 's club… However, I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has coloured my entire life and works.’ The short story of Winter Dreams was written around the same time that Fitzgerald was developing ideas for The Great Gatsby. Whilst this wasn’t published until 1925, Winter Dreams débuted in 1922 and the similarities between the novel and short story were intentional. Winter Dreams became a short draft, which Fitzgerald based The Great Gatsby on. Both resemble Fitzgerald’s real life; although both were written before most of the comparable events occurred. Preceding this, The Jelly Bean, a short story from Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age (published in 1922) invited the reader to follow Jim Powell through his dreams of social advancement and love, which parallel Fitzgerald’s later stories and life experiences. In addition, Fitzgerald’s The Rich Boy, a short story published in 1926 in All the Sad Young Men suggests that the author’s life experiences shaped his work up to and even after The Great Gatsby, which is considered to be Fitzgerald’s greatest work.

Accordingly, Fitzgerald uses the characters in “Winter Dreams” as a warning to his generation about how the irresponsibility and emptiness of the wild lifestyle of the 1920s could lead to their downfall.

Later on Donnelly starts to talk about popular culture and its influences on the show. She says, “Popular culture thrives on explanation as a way of abating fears of violence and fears of Otherness” (Donnelly 21) which season seven and eight are all about. Dexter searches constantly for a real reason to explain why he is the way he is. He wants a better understanding of himself to make himself fit in. Morals have been developed to single out the abnormal and throughout his whole life Dexter was singled out. The consumers of the show can identify a killer as a monster, making the person less than human in our minds. Therefore if Dexter thought the same as us; killing a killer is the same as squishing a bug because both are lesser than humans and their lives do not make an impact on ours. Dexter realizes in season eight that he is an even worse monster that he believed himself to be.

Oftentimes society gets so caught up in achieving greatness that it is blinded to the obstacles of reality. The American Dream can sometimes be so unachievable yet so alluring that people cannot help but strive after it as if it were their destiny. Fitzgerald highlights this phenomenon in his novel The Great Gatsby through many characters and their pursuit of their own American Dreams. Fitzgerald uses figurative language and contrasting diction to show his cynical attitude about the pursuit of the American Dream and the blindness of those who believe in it.

In conclusion the desire for love and the desire for wealth is not always the key to happiness. In Dexter's case his desire or dream of love caused his nothing but misery and a broken heart.

Because Dexter’s life is unintentionally controlled by these dreams, he does not realize that he is being driven toward material success. He is unaware that these dreams are leading him to fall in love with the woman who stands at the core of his materialistic fantasies. His complete focus in life becomes geared toward “gaining the love of a beautiful woman who expresses the glamour and promise of the exclusive world” (Perkins). Dexter begins to strongly believe that Judy Jones is his key to unlocking the world of the rich and wealthy. By illustrating the luxurious lifestyle of Judy Jones, Fitzgerald reveals how she represents, to Dexter, what life is like for the rich and prosperous.

The short story “Winter Dreams” was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and was first seen by anyone in December of 1922 when it appeared in Metropolitan Magazine. The story also illustrates many of the same themes as “The Great Gatsby,” the greatest novel in American history. “Winter Dreams” is about a young man named “Dexter” who has desires, but thinks the only way he can have them is if he is rich. His ambition gets the best of him when he strives for everything he cannot have. When unmasked to reality, your dreams can expire instantaneously.

The Quagmire of the Upper Echelons of American Society: The Allegorical Tale of Fitzgerald's “Winter Dream”

Being a single woman with a family to support in the 1930’s was not an easy job. Especially when society had so many chips stacked against them. Tillie Olsen’s “I stand Here Ironing” is a short story that addresses feminine social disorders and inequalities as well as economic disadvantages that people of lower circumstances have to overcome to survive. In the short story it is basically an autobiography of Tillie Olsen’s life told by the narrator (Emily’s mother). Throughout the story the narrator is reflecting the way she brought up her daughter during a depression and feminist era. She feels very regretful reflecting 19 years late because of the decisions she was forced to make because of the absence of Emily’s father. This story can be seen in a feminist perspective as well as a Marxist perspective; even though they are very different from one another both perspectives help interpret Tillie Olsen’s short story. The Marxist perspective helps illuminate Tillie Olsen’s “I stand Here Ironing” when the narrator explains how the capital system negatively affected Emily and her Family. In a feminist perspective the narrator describes her different encounters with men that abandoned her; causing her to have to take on a male dominated role. Because of the societal characteristic she had to take on it caused her to turn away from her daughter in order to survive.

While literary critics do attempt to elaborate or develop ideas articulated by Karl Marx, it is important and necessary to make a distinction between Marx's specific socio-economic and political agenda and the body of literary theory which emerged years later. Marxist literary criticism proceeds from the fundamental philosophical assumption that "consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence...Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life" (Marx 568-9). Marxist critics use this challenge to the notion of an innate, prefigured, individual human nature to reexamine the nature of creative or literary authority.