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What does the reader learn about Dexter's family and social position in "Winter Dreams"?

Dexter's family is solidly middle class as his father owns the "second best" grocery store in their town of Black Bear, Minnesota.


Because his father has a lucrative business, Dexter caddies at the Sherry Island Golf Club merely for pocket money, unlike the other caddies who are so poor that they live in one-room houses. At the country club, Dexter Green is able to associate with the wealthy. There he delights in the "admiring crowd" of men such as Mr. Mortimer Jones, a prosperous member and owner of a coveted Pierce-Arrow automobile, who watches with amazement when Dexter gives exhibitions of his skillful and showy dives off the springboard of the club raft.


Later on, Dexter's father prospers enough that he is able to pay his son's way to the state university, but Dexter wants more. Whereas his father may have "association with glittering things," Dexter desires the "glittering things" themselves. That is, he aspires to the upper class rank himself in order to fulfill his desire for a perfect life. In Dexter's imagination the rich hold a magical quality which he wishes to possess. For this reason, he does not attend the state school; instead, Dexter enrolls in a prestigious school in the East where he can be associated with the denizens of his "winter dreams." 

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