Short Story “winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The short story “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is mostly set in the Sherry Island Golf Club. This is where the story’s protagonist; Dexter works as a golf caddy and falls in love with Judy. Dexter also rubs shoulders with opulent members of society at this club and learns how to achieve his fortune at the tender age of 20. The setting of the Sherry Club serves the purpose of marrying beauty and money in Dexter’s mentality. Black Bear village which is close to the club serves as a reminder of Dexter’s humble background which spurred him to aim for riches.

The literary devices which I will analyze in this story are; the setting, characterization, theme and style. These literary devices are vital in the development of the plot and characters of the story. This essay clearly depicts how these devices have been used by the author and the effect that they achieve in building the short story.

Setting is used by the narrator as a literal device in this story to give the reader a vivid feeling of the specific weather seasons in which the story is set in addition to the time in history that the story is set. The story is set in Minnesota during its varying seasons of summer, fall, winter and spring. This is evident in the narrator use of seasons to indicate passing time in tenth paragraph of the fourth chapter. The mood of the story can be described as conflicting and tense with regard to unrequited love felt between Judy, Dexter and Irene.

Major tempers present in this short story are naturalism and realism. Naturalism is accentuated by the main character’s unwavering love for Judy Jones. This is evident in the short story from Dexter’s mooning over Judy jones when he learns that she is now a married woman and that she will never have be his again. He laments, “Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more.” This is in reference to Judy Jones. Realism is depicted in this short story by Judy’s final situation whereby she married a man who does not treat her well as described by Delvin in the final chapter of the story. Judy’s poor marriage choice is regarded as something bad happening to a good person. This is especially true in the eyes of Dexter who loved Judy dearly, dint not get the chance to marry her and also broke off his engagement to Irene.