Winter Dreams And The Snows Of Kilimanjaro

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams,” ambitious, “desirous” Dexter stands at the threshold between admiring “glittering things” and finding out that the “glittering things” he admires fade away sooner or later. Dexter‘s character throughout this short story, changes in many ways, from being unaware of what he really wanted in life to being aware of what he actually became.

Throughout this quarter we have read many books and many genres, at first glance they don’t seem to have any intertwining themes or ideas. Yet when you dig deeper than face value you can see that there is many underlying themes that the average reader might easily overlook. Shame is an overall human element that is seen all throughout; The Things They Carried, the Fifth Child, and Pocatello. Shame is the key to good literature, it is what drives the other emotions, and without shame people would not be people.

In the short stories “A&P” by John Updike and “I Want to Know Why” by Sherwood Anderson, the protagonists experience powerful epiphanies. In “A&P” the epiphany occurs when the protagonist, Sammy, realizes that by quitting his job to try and impress some girls, his life will never be the same. In “I Want to Know Why,” the protagonist’s epiphany occurs when his hero, a jockey, brags to an unsavory woman in a brothel about winning a race, taking the credit away from the horse and making the protagonist realize that people are not always what they seem. These epiphanies are strengthened by the authors of both stories tightly controlling the characterization of the protagonists. The protagonist in “I Want to Know Why” experiences a stronger epiphany than the protagonist in “A&P.”

Short stories have fully developed themes but appear significantly shorter and less elaborate than novels. A similar theme found in short stories “Winter Dreams” written by Scott F. Fitzgerald and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner included the social and environmental influences that encouraged and controlled the character’s life and decisions. In “Winter Dreams”, the main protagonist-- Dexter-- fell into a fixation over a young, whimsical blueblood, Judy Jones. His obsession led him to believe that Judy Jones reciprocated his feelings for her, leaving him bare and mortal-- despite prior beliefs. Following her father’s death, Miss Emily fell into a dark obscurity due to the pressure and compulsion of having to carry on the honorable family name. While using a unique point of view (first person peripheral), “A Rose for Emily” followed a mysterious and desirable woman named Miss Emily as her hometown tried to understand her peculiar ways and began to find her disgraceful. By comparing and contrasting these two literary pieces, a similar organization-- including the writers’ purpose and themes-- should become clear. By using literary devices-- such as point of view, dramatic irony, detail, and figurative language-- Scott F. Fitzgerald and William Faulkner conducted two short stories similar in aim and reasoning, probable for contrasting and comparing elements within the parallel writings.

Profound in the love shared between the father and son, their sense of unity kept them pushing through the pain for “each the other’s world entire” (6). In a society painted by shades of grey, one cannot help but at times feel the desire to fade into the world full of suffering. In the father’s perspective “there were few nights lying in the dark that he did not envy the dead ” (230). However, the man is fortunate because he has a spark in his life that motivates him to keep going- the boy. Many others before the man took their own life in an attempt to rescue themselves from the doomed life ahead. However for the father, “the boy was all that stood between him and death” (29). The father possess such love for the boy that no matter what the situation is he will never take the easy route out. He will never put his own needs over the boy’s. He will never leave him to try to fend for his own. Furthermore, if the boy were to ever depart life before him he “would want to die too” (11), thus proving that the boy is the father’s incentive to carry on. With the love for his son in mind, the father is enabled to carry on with his life. During a difficult situation, love encourages one to see it to the

Stories cold penetrates his anxiety. When reading the beginning of the story we don’t know what to expect; murder, accident, unpleasant massages. We look forward to calculate risk and return of the shares. When nothing happens, which would spoil the initial order, and the hero returns to the starting point, we are better prepared for the next meeting of dullness and mediocrity, which is still fighting for it, is turning. But it soon just the end of the story, and the last word of the lid firmly on the floor that no longer

Every day, people are forced into positions they do not want to be in. Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book Into the Wild, and Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s fictional novel The Metamorphosis, are perfect examples of people who are unhappy with their current lives. Both men are tired of their mundane existences. On the surface, the men seem to have a lot in common, including their subpar familial situations and their discontentedness with their current existences. Both stories unfortunately also end in misery that eventually leads to death. Despite McCandless’s and Samsa’s similarities, the men are actually very different. It is much easier to relate and gain insight into McCandless’s world than it is into Samsa’s world, largely because of their differences.

“Winter nights” by jake paul merch is a succinct dedication to the human condition. Employing exacting and florid metaphors. Paul lulls us to a rather anticlimactic end in just a few lines. The power of the poem is felt in its economy and word choice. In ” winter nights”, jake paul merch portrays the idea that, the measurement of one’s success is not defined by others.

Throughout the beginning of the course we have read a wide variety of short stories all written by people from different backgrounds and nations. Despite these differences I have found that there is a continuing theme in the majority of the works we have read. Many of these stories are about a character or characters journey and what this reveals to them about themselves or the world around them. In particular Young Goodman Brown, Araby and A Good Man Is Hard to Find all deal a character 's realization of the bitter world they live in. The journey is merely a prompt or tool that helps to unearth the misery that each character finds. I will be comparing and contrasting the characters journeys in the three stories and determining what I

In the short story, “Winter Dreams,” Fitzgerald creates Dexter as being strong in business, but also week in relationships by showing that dexter was able to start his own business but he gave it away because of Judy.

The story “Winter Dreams” bounced around a lot, however the setting is outdoor in the peacefully setting of a golf course. This very important because it bring a sense of calmness to the story, unlike some of the others in the unit 2. However, the golf course is in Minnesota where the winter are long and harsh. Nevertheless, I bet the summers are nice and green on the golf course. Still, since Minnesota is the land of lakes, there was many for Dexter to enjoy, even right on the golf course. The golf course was life for Dexter. Nothing else matter when he was there.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” is a short story about a young middle-class boy named Dexter and how his obsession to live his ideal life of being rich and famous, became the obstacle that prevented his happiness. He falls victim to his own illusions, which he associates with a spoiled rich girl named Judy, because of his inability to self-sufficiently identify his self-worth. The intro explains Dexter’s fixation of status when the narrator says, “Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses [...…] but Dexter Green's father owned the second-best grocery store in Black Bear.”

Notwithstanding Dexter Green positive attributes and financial success, the author shows how all his dreams are not more than an illusion, and when he realizes it, he now has nothing; all his wealth will never fulfill the void in his life. This illusion or “Winter Dreams” as he called are massively related with the idealization of Judy Jones. Clinton S. Burhans, Jr. in his dissertation, for example, says, “With the real Judy out of his life, the girl he had dreamed of having can remain alive in his imagination, unchanging in the images of her youthful beauty and desirability”. In Dexter’s mind, the image of Judy full of beauty and vitality will be eternal, and it will become the principal source of inspiration to keep forward. This image

However, Judy herself is a well-rounded character, who seems to have her own goals and dreams which are also tarnished and faded just as Dexter’s. In this story, “Fitzgerald is lamenting the lost dreams of Judy as much as he laments the lost dreams of Dexter,” states F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Perspectives. Dexter pursues Judy for her beauty, her wealth, and her status. These three things, whether Dexter realized it or not, intoxicated him and caused him to, in many ways, lose touch with rationality, nor care that he had. “The plot...centers on a young man who dreams of becoming a member of the wealthy, upper class and connects the dream to the courtship of one of the most celebrated belles of the elite group to which he has aspirations of belonging.

Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and John Updike’s “A & P” are two interesting short stories with similar endings. In both short stories, the main character undergoes a big change. Both the protagonist in “Cathedral” and “ A & P” have extremely different personalities and outlooks on life compared to their antagonist counterparts. In “Cathedral” and in “A & P”, the antagonist plays a similarly large role in bringing the protagonist to new perceptions of life.