The group had a lot of interesting discussions about the story Winter Dreams.

I remember
vividly from our group, we talked about who loved the other more. It was a debate between Dexter and
Judy, and who loved each other most. I remember this was a good topic as we all agreed no one loved
each other truly, but to an extent Judy loved Dexter more. At first, I thought Dexter loved her more
because of all that he sacrifices for her, only to realize with the help of my classmates that he was
lusting after her. Once he finds out she is no longer beautiful he loses interest, whereas Judy still loved
Dexter. Besides love we also defined social class and money, and how Dexter fits into the Marxist
theory. This group did a really good job of having deep, respectful and intellectual conversation. It was a
lot of fun to talk with everyone about our thoughts on the story. The only thing I think we could improve
on was repetition. I saw a few people say, “I agree” and then reword someone else’s point or thought. I
really wanted more unique answers from everyone, but we all still did good.

An imaginary thesis for an essay I may write regarding this subject would be “The line between
lust and love is difficult to draw between Dexter and Judy because of Dexter’s sacrifices he makes for
Judy in the beginning and the carelessness toward her in the end.”

The main points of this essay would highlight the differences between love and lust. It would be
important for me to note how Dexter is lusting because how he cheats on Irene for someone who
doesn’t care too much at the time. Not only is he lacking an emotional relationship, he isn’t too happy
about her once he learns she isn’t beautiful in her old age. Judy on the other hand is kind of opposite
and still kinda cares about Dexter.

This confusion with lust and love is something I often see with my friends. I view what my
friends do from a spectator-ish point of view. Most of the time, when they come to talk to me about a
girl they’re interested in, it has nothing to do with their personality. Most of the time my friends are
obsessed with a girls looks or body, and not their personality. I saw this with one of my friends who
asked this one girl out to homecoming. She is a super nice girl, but he ended up barely talking to her the
whole night because he was scared. He ended up going out with another girl a few days later based
solely off the fact that she was more attractive. I see this a lot in high school, not just in my friends but
all the time and it does make me sad. This kind of ties all to Winter Dreams in what status is tied too,
and most people are born with it just like certain people are born with better looks than others.