"Winter Dreams" Fitzgerald Essay Example

The "Winter Dreams" by Fitzgerald is a story involving a young man, Dexter, who is ambitious and in love with Judy. Throughout the story, Dexter's ambitions were to become rich in order to impress Judy to love him. However, Dexter's efforts to be in a relationship with Judy fails, and Dexter feel disappointed and unhappy. In this story, Fitzgerald uses a lot of symbolism and imagery to reflect on the social living of the American society at that time. The aspects of feminism, culture, and traditions are easily identified from different episodes of the story. In the story Winter Dreams, society has objectified women thus creating an image of women as gifts for men in marriage.

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One of the ways women have been objectified in Winter Dreams is through feminism. In the story, women have been subjugated by the society which views men as superior. Winter dreams reflect on the role of women as subjects of the male dominion during the old American society. The story narrates how Judy and Irene, the two female characters, were used as objects by men. The author describes Irene as an upper-class traditional woman "an angel in the house" who is ready to obey the social rules of the marriage (Zhang & Liying 513). Irene is obedient to her husband, pleases him, and attends to the needs of the husband. According to the men in the society men Irene could fit as being a wife. Although the authors describe Irene with a positive description, her emotions and psychological feelings about feminism are ignored. Additionally, Dexter describes Irene as an object by saying that she was sturdily popular and great and that she would do her job perfectly well as a wife (Fitzgerald 985). It simply means that women in society at that time had no other purpose but to be servants to the male dominion.

The author continues to describe another female character in the story called Judy. According to the author, Judy was a very beautiful woman, and her beauty was fatal to men. Judy used her beauty to socialize only with rich men and then later abandons them (Fitzgerald 987). At that time in America, women of such kind were rare because most of them were tired up by the believes that a woman should be subject to men. However, Judy is courageous and does not care about the image created by the society about the female gender. She lived the way she wanted rather than being a woman the society wanted. Therefore, Judy was a rebel who lived her life against the social rules and conventions during her time. Unlike Irene, Judy pursues personal freedom and follows her dreams without considering how society thinks of her.

However, the society at that time could only view women as their subjects. Despite Judy's courage and willingness to enjoy individual freedom, Judy gets married to an abusive man. Due to mistreatment and age, Judy's beauty fades such that she started feeling less important in society (Fitzgerald 987). According to winter dreams, a man could do whatever she wanted with her wife. The men at that time did not care about women's emotion because they viewed them as objects and gifts.

Additionally, when Judy's beauty fades, Dexter losses interests in her "Long ago, there was something in me, but now that thing is gone". This shows that Dexter's love for Judy was only based on her beauty. Now that Judy's beauty was gone, she was no longer charming to men in society. This incident reflects on how women at that time were viewed as objects with subordinate status. The society at that time urged women to accept that they were victims of the circumstances of love (Bernad et al., 433).

From both stories of both Irene and Judy, it is evident to say that women cannot escape the shackles of the society that views them as objects. Firstly, for a woman to become a good wife, the society expects the woman to obey and attend to her husband (Zhang & Liying 64). Again, society expects the woman to be beautiful because society does not care about your inner personality. A lot of men in the society are interested in women physical appearance, which means if it fades, then they are no longer attracted to such women. Even today, women in society are still living under the social rules of being objects and gifts to men.

The culture altitude is another way which women have been objectified as gifts to men. The society in winter dreams was materialistic and sexuality culture. According to the author, having a good and beautiful wife was something that men emphasized on. During that time, the society's culture did not give women the freedom to choose and do what they think. In fact, women were viewed as "materialistic objects" who could be subjects to the rich men. For instance, Dexter got attracted to the beauty of Judy and he wished to make Judy his wife (Bernad et al., 440). However, Dexter was poor and did not match the wealthy class fit to marry her. Therefore, Dexter decided to work hard in order to acquire wealth that will put him in the upper class fit for marrying Judy. However, after Judy's beauty faded, Dexter feels his dreams have failed because despite having wealth, he could no longer marry her. This means that most men at that time viewed women as objects to invest their wealth on. Therefore, it means that beautiful women could marry rich men, not of their own will but just for the case of following the cultural norms of the society.

Additionally, the culture of the society at that time seems to objectify women by creating an image of importance when they were beautiful. When Judy was unmarried and beautiful, she was the main focus in the society. She could socialize only with the rich and could do whatever she wanted. However, after getting married, her husband started viewing her as an object. Her husband mistreated her until her beauty faded. When her beauty faded, she was no longer the center of attraction of the men in the society. For instance, despite Dexter claiming to be in love with her, he is no longer interested in her (Bernad et al., 441). This made Judy start feeling less important in society. Therefore, it means that the society at that time was only interested in the physical appearance of women. Even today, society continues to objectify the beauty of women. Today, beautiful women are taken as "objects" which can be purchased by certain wealth and later be abandoned after beauty fades.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Winter dreams have created an image of women as objects who can be owned by men at a price. The society at that time did not consider the emotions and psychological feelings of women towards such mistreatment. Although the role of women in modern society continues to evolve, the modern society continues to view women as objects who should be subjected to certain social rules. Women in modern society continue to be confined by the society shackles which they struggle to escape from. It is, therefore, recommended that the society builds up a new culture that recognizes women as important people in the society and not as objects.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. Winter dreams. Booklassic, 2015.

Zhang, Lihua, and Liying Cui. "A Feminist Reading of Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams." Theory & Practice in Language Studies 4.3 (2014). Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for F. Scott Fitzgerald's" Winter Dreams". Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016.

Bernard, Philippe, et al. "From sex objects to human beings: Masking sexual body parts and humanization as moderators to women's objectification." Psychology of women quarterly39.4 (2015): 432-446.