The characters that Fitzgerald created in both The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” reveal the era in which he lived and he did very well to define the time period. In this way Fitzgerald is considered a historian of the time. After the First World War, American society went through a period of intense change. Traditional principles of God, country, and civilization were traumatized as Americans faced the anguish of a war of that magnitude. During the 1920s, many Americans recognized that the old order had been replaced by a new, open society, embracing new fashions in dress, behavior, and even art. Fitzgerald coined the name "Jazz Age" to describe this decade, which along with the "Roaring Twenties" came to express the cultural revolution that was occurring at the time. The qualities of these compelling characters were their pursuit of pleasure, particularly associated with the accumulation of wealth, as their primary goal, disrupting traditional ideas of hard work, social conformity and respectability. Dexter Greene was desperate to accumulate wealth in the hope that it would unite him with the social elite. Gatsby also pursued wealth in an attempt to elevate his status. Fitzgerald wrote “Winter Dreams” while he was still working on The Great Gatsby, which may be why the two works share numerous thematic and technical components. Both works center on a young man of respectable origins who attempts to be part of the elite world occupied by women who love and dream. For this reason, both Jay Gatsby and Dexter Greene are the two most compelling Fitzgerald characters. At the beginning of “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Greene, a fourteen-year-old boy, is a caddy at the Sherry Island Golf Club,… . middle of the card ......life on the rise. Today, alcohol use and abuse continues to grow in the United States. The quality that makes these two characters compelling is the fact that they are doomed to fail. Their obsession with the past leads them to neglect the present and, ultimately, pursue unattainable goals. Gatsby doesn't want Daisy to love him again. He needs her to erase all the affection she had for Tom, which Daisy is unable to do. Gatsby “asks too much” because he needs Daisy to be the same as when they first met. Dexter and Gatsby want to return to a time when they were lower class and wealthy to rekindle a romance with a love interest that has moved on. It is this hopeless romanticism that makes their characters compelling and allows for emotional investment. Perkins, Wendy. "Critical Essay on 'Winter Dreams'." Short stories for students. Ed. Carol