1. Love Interest of the Main Character

Judy Jones, in Winter Dreams, has a luminous, desirable presence, her physicality is alluring and “arrestingly beautiful”. Men are drawn to her image and presence, however they are unaware of what she is truly feeling and thinking, it is irrelevant to them because they are enchanted by her appearance and charisma. This is alike in Daisy, who’s physical presence and image make her beautiful and enticing. Gatsby and other men are drawn to her “low thrilling voice” and seemingly perfect image just as Dexter is to Judy.

1. The Symbolism of Eyes

In both stories, eyes symbolize what or how the characters are truly feeling, this is often contrasting to what they present outwardly. Fitzgerald, when detailing Judy’s now stunning appearance, describes how her beauty is balanced almost by the “sad luxury of her eyes”, revealing the contrast between her feelings and her image. Eyes often show Gatsby’s pain or discomfort when he is simultaneously straining to present the opposite, for example his eyes are described as “tense, unhappy”, “distraught”,  when he and Daisy reunite, despite his attempting to look at ease.

1. Language Choices

The language devices and word choices that Fitzgerald uses in Winter Dreams mirror those in The Great Gatsby, he uses words such as “passionate”, “involuntarily” and “vitality” in both stories and simply they way in which he strings together words is distinguishably similar in the two pieces. He is characteristically very descriptive and his word choices are specific which creates a detailed picture for his readers. He also uses oxymorons frequently in his writing, for example, when we are introduced to Judy Jones as an 11 year old, she is “beautifully ugly as little girls are apt to be”. He later on, as an adult,  describes her smile as “radiant, blatantly artificial – convincing” these two ideas of her smile being obviously false yet simultaneously persuasive evidently contrast. Fitzgerald also does this throughout The Great Gatsby, he describes things as having a “ferocious delicacy” and being “definitely unrecognizable and vaguely familiar”, it is a distinctive trait.

1. Character Type and Life of Protagonist

Both Gatsby and Dexter have eminent similarities in their life and character types. Dexter started out young and ambitious, as Gatsby did, dreaming and fantasizing about his prosperous future. Both work and make their riches as young men, through their respective jobs. They fall in consuming love with women who represent all that they have desire for, “It did not take him many hours to decide that he had wanted Judy ever since he was a proud, desirous little boy.”. These woman have enchanting qualities and physical presence which create the dream and illusion under which both men fall. Dexter however, manages to draw himself away from utter infatuation, he understands and accepts the dream for what truly is, which Gatsby cannot do, he is entirely, irreversibly under the captivation of this dream despite the inevitability of time, he was “breathing dreams like air” and had been “full of the idea for so long, dreamed it right to the end.”. Whereas for Dexter, in the end, “the dream was gone.”, “They had existed and they existed no longer.”.

1. Color Symbolism

In The Great Gatsby, colors play a significant role in revealing things about characters and ideas. The color white is used to displays the character’s illusion, the illusion of their perfection and innocence while revealing the empty truth behind it. In Winter Dreams he uses color again, for example, Judy arrives at a part wearing gold from head to toe, she was a “doll in cloth of gold: gold in a band at her head, gold in two slipper points…”. This color, like in The Great Gatsby, represents the status and image of desirability, “high in a white palace, the kings daughter, the Golden girl.”. It glistens with beauty and worth in the same way as Judy does to Dexter, Daisy does to Gatsby.