What kind of man is Dexter? Does he deserve sympathy, criticism or both? Describe Dexter's traits and the motivations for his primary actions and feelings.

What kind of man is Dexter? Does he deserve sympathy, criticism or both?

Dexter Green is an ambitious person who wishes to one day golf with the wealthy individuals he caddies for as a young man. He is attracted to wealth and also becomes infatuated with Judy as a teenager. As Dexter gets older, he graduates from a prestigious East Coast college and pursues a career as a successful businessman. Dexter is a hard worker and big dreamer who is not an entitled snob. Dexter also remains fixated on the ideal life as a rich man with Judy as his partner. As years pass, Dexter learns that Judy has lost her attractive looks and settled into the role of housewife. Dexter breaks down because he knows his winter dreams are unattainable. He naive believes wealth and physical beauty have the ability to make him happy in life, causing him to be caught up in appearances.

Describe Dexter's traits and the motivations for his primary actions and feelings.

Dexter has grown up around people with more money and higher social status than his family, who were grocers. The years that Dexter spent caddying at the golf club brought him into contact with people that he wanted to eventually surpass in success. As he becomes a young man, he decides "He wanted not association with glittering things and glittering people--he wanted the glittering things themselves."

While young men his age from wealthier families entered more precarious professions, including selling stocks and investing, Dexter became a practical-minded business owner and earned a fortune rather quickly. His ambition was not to befriend his social superiors; Dexter later plays golf with them and finds them limited, untalented, and boring.

Dexter himself doesn't fully understand why he pursues success and how he should be enjoying it. The narrator observes that "often he reached out for the best without knowing why he wanted it." Perhaps Dexter is caught up in the American consumerism that arose in the wake of WWI. It was easy for people to acquire more consumer goods and services during this time, and Dexter seems to have fallen into this collective enthusiasm for the things his success provides.

Explanation:

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