Winter Dreams

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Winter Dreams is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that first appeared in the Metropolitan Magazine in December 1922, and was collected in All The Sad Young Men in 1926. It is one of Fitzgerald's finest stories and is frequently anthologized. In the Fitzgerald canon, it is considered to be in the 'Gatsby era', as many of it's themes were later expanded upon in his famous novel The Great Gatsby in 1925

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dexter Green is a young man who aspires to be part of the elite. He starts out as a golf caddie at the Sherry Island Golf Club in Black Bear Lake, Minnesota. It is when he is caddying he is first introduced to Judy Jones. Dexter works under Judy Jones' father, Mortimer Jones, at the club, and one day decides he is too old to work there, and eventually gets money to go to college. After college Dexter creates a laundry business. Soon he becomes very wealthy and successful. Dexter returns to the Sherry Island Golf Club playing rounds with the men he once caddied for. He encounters Judy Jones again on the golf course, only now she is older and amazingly beautiful. After hitting one of the men with her ball, Judy goes on playing golf. Later on in the evening Dexter takes a raft out onto the lake, and runs into Judy, who is driving a motor boat. She asks him to take over, and swims on a board behind him. After this encounter their long affair begins. On and off, until Judy leaves. When she goes away, however, Dexter becomes engaged to Irene Scheerer. Later, during a dance, he sees Judy, and is unable to resist her, breaking his relationship with Irene. After serving in World War I, Dexter later meets up with a friend who recalls having attended Judy Jones' wedding, and goes on to describe her husband's torrid affairs, and her loss of beauty. Because his description contrasts with Dexter's visions of Judy, Dexter's "winter dreams" are destroyed.