The characters Fitzgerald created in The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams” reveal the times in which he lived and were very successful in defining the period. This is how Fitzgerald is considered a historian of the period. After World War I, American society went through a period of intense change. Traditional principles of God, country, and civilization were traumatized when Americans faced the anguish of war of such magnitude. During the 1920s, many Americans recognized that an old order had been replaced by a new, open society that was adopting new fashions in dress, behavior, and even art.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 taking place at the time. The compelling qualities of these characters were their pursuit of pleasure, particularly associated with the accumulation of wealth, as their primary goal, upending traditional ideas of hard work, social conformity, and respectability. Dexter Greene was desperate to accumulate wealth in hopes of associating with the social elite. Gatsby also sought wealth in an effort to elevate his own status. Fitzgerald wrote “Winter Dreams” while he was still working on The Great Gatsby and this may be why the two works share many thematic and technical components. Both works center on a young man from a decent background who tries to become part of the elite world occupied by the women he loves and dreams of. For this reason, 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 caddying at the Sherry Island Golf Club, ..... .middle of paper ......speed to get up. Today, alcohol use and abuse continues to grow in the United States. The quality that makes both of these 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 affections she had for Tom, something Daisy is unable to do. Gatsby is “asking 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 lover who has moved on. It’s this desperate romanticism that makes their characters compelling and allows for emotional investment. Perkins, Wendy. “Critical Essay on “Winter Dreams”.” Short stories for students. Ed. Carole