The Importance Of Social Class In Fitzgerald's Winter Dreams

Wealth and Class Ever wish that maybe just one time, that scratch-off ticket would be the one that changes everything. Well it is and isn’t that easy to change from one social class to another. If the person in this scenario were a middle class person then yes, the person would now be the “new money” in the wealthy social class. On the opposite end of this scenario, social class wouldn’t be this easy to change, because wining the lottery is one in a billion odds. However, Dexter Green in Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” does move social classes, from middle to wealthy. “Dexter Green’s father owned the second best grocery store in Dillard-the best one was “The Hub,” patronized by the wealthy people from Lake Erminie-and Dexter caddied only for …show more content…
Judy Jones was no exception, her behavior and attitude was a nasty one. She treated people like they were disposable and like their feelings didn’t matter. Dexter for some reason admired her and loved her; until he decided that he could take no more abuse. The very wealthy, admired Dexter Green returned to New York making his fortune with the laundry business and served his country as an officer in the war. When he was thirty-two he was what he created, wealthy and alone. Dexter Green found out that wealth and money does not buy happiness. As a child he thought being one of the rich wealthy men at the country club would make him happy, how wrong he …show more content…
The only wealth Sarty longed for was just consistence, not having to run from farm to farm all the time due to his father’s behavior. Scared that his father is going to hurt or kill someone, possibility his self. Social class is something that is predetermined by society. Society determines it based on how much money, education, and job one may have. Social class is mobile and someone can be moved up or down it. If one makes more money, receives a better job, has a better education one can more upwards on the social ladder. If one looses money, his or her job, home, etc. then someone can move down the ladder just as quickly. Dexter Green and his father seem to move up the social class ladder rather easily, because they already had money. Running a grocery store is not a bad niche and since the population of the town Dillard can increase and decrease at anytime the social class could have gone either way. Dexter made good choices and invested in the laundry partnership at the right time. If he would chose to wait a few years wool may not have been such an important fabric; therefore, the laundry business a failure. All of the social mobility that happened in “Winter Dreams” was by chance, any of the decision that were made could have landed in a different less prosperous way. Sarty chances of changing social classes in “Barn Burning” were always a dead end. When the Sartoris rent farmland