In W.J. Reeves essay, "Lies and Literature: Lying used as a literary device," Reeves identifies F. Scott Fitzgerald as a great American author who used the American love of lies and liars as the ideological cornerstone of his major works such as his novel The Great Gatsby as well as a more minor take such as "Winter Dreams." Winter Dreams" first appeared in Metropolitan Magazine in Decembe

Social lies in Fitzgerald, Reeves adds, are the way one engages in social promotion, and thus social lies are at the heart of the American experiment. "Liars seem to have been naturally selected for survival based on their ability to shift the focus from" the liares themselves to "either those who are accusing them of untruth or someone else who can be blamed for whatever the liar is lying about." (Reeves, 1998, p.1) This skill means that liars are uniquely eqippied to thrive and flouish in an America, capitalist society. America covertly approves of liars because it is the only way to succeed in America, by 'faking it,' until one 'makes it.'

Thus, Porter's short story is highly metaphorical in its langauge, and continually alternates between interior monologues and external dialogues that propel the story forward as a narrative. However, in his prose quality, Fitzgerald lays his protagonist's struggle flat out in short sentences-the main characracter is poor, but not so poor, and of the aspiring middle-class in an upper class society. This is clear from the first sentence of the tale. "Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green's father owned the second best grocery-store in Black Bear--the best one was 'The Hub,' patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island--and Dexter caddied only for pocket-money."

In contrast, Katherine Anne Porter's short story "Flowering Judas" is highly poetic in nature, with layer upon layer of subtext and symbol, as Will Brantley notes in his 1995 essay "Katherine Anne Porter's Artistic Development: Primitivism, Traditionalism, and Totalitarianism." Brantley notes, citing the scholar Robert Brinkmeyer the strong influence of anti-Catholicism in "Flowering Judas." When applying different interpretive strategies to Porter's fiction, Brantley arues that Laura in "Flowering Judas" "cultivates an asceticism instead of bringing her Irish Catholic background and revolutionary activities into a real and "constructive dialogue," with other ideologies such as feminism.

Dexter Green is a social liar, a poor boy who feigns good manners and good breeding. And by doing this, Reeves suggests, Green is another quintessential American Fitzgerald boy who makes good in the 'American' way, a way that is ultimately hollow and empty of real satisfaction and success. Reeves cites at the beginning of his essay a conservative educatio

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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)