The American Dream Analysis

The “American Dream” can be best described as happiness and living in the lap of luxury, but the “American Dream” is fictitious. Winter Dreams and The Swimmer both have characters, who try to achieve their own perception of the American Dream, but in the end, fail. The “American Dream” comes with a great cost. F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts that in his short story Winter Dreams. The Swimmer by John Cheever depicts the “American Dream” as something already achieve but then, it is lost. The “American Dream” is not just one exact goal for everyone. It is the way a person perceives it and makes the “American Dream” their own dream, but the “American Dream” is not always what it turns out to be. Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows a man named
He meets Irene Scheerer and they get engaged. But at the same time Dexter is still in love with Judy Jones and when Judy finds out that Dexter is rich, she wants him (gold digger much?). Even though he is engaged, Dexter goes back to his old ways and returns to Judy. One writer wrote, “This shows his incredible weakness to his Winter Dreams, which blind him to Judy's inability to commit and the inevitability of Judy running away from him again.” (Baremore, "An Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s: Winter Dreams.") Dexter’s ambition for Judy ultimately gets in the way of his happiness. He is so blinded by the “glittering things”, including Judy, that he cannot realize that his happiness is slowing fading. To get away from both relationships and to avoid an emotional downfall, Dexter joins the Army to fight in World War 1. After returning from the war, Dexter hears about how Judy has been. Judy is in a horrible marriage and this greatly upsets Dexter because when he sees how bad she looks and how bad of a life she is living, he’s dream is ultimately shattered. Dexter’s finaly words
True happiness could only be achieved with a balanced point of view of the world, friends and family, and of oneself. Winter Dreams and The Swimmer both critique the American Dream by pin pointing their characters’ weaknesses. Fitzgerald and Cheever have also, in some way, incorporated their own life into these two short stories. Fitzgerald was a middle-class man and after some hard work he became famous just like his character Dexter Green in Winter Dreams. Cheever faced dealing with the battle of alcoholism very much like his character Neddy Merrill in The Swimmer.
Both Winter Dreams and The Swimmer depict the “American Dream” as something, at first desirable, but if a person is consumed by it, it can take toll on their life. What could be seemed as the perfect life is truly detrimental to a person’s well-being and their