Critical Thinking Blog #5

After careful revision of the end of “Winter Dreams,” it was difficult for me to find any sort of pleasure lurking in his nostalgia. While there was a tinge of optimism in his reminiscing, the overwhelming sense of loss overpowered said tinge. His longing to be the one to have married Judy and seen her become not-so pretty is apparent. To discover that she is no longer beautiful and leads a fairly unhappy life makes his desirous of what his life could have been with her. However, in the end, there is a sense of closure and that he is finally to get over her. Since he is extremely inquisitive as to her whereabouts and situation, he is somewhat comforted, even though he longs to be the one she ended up with, due to her current state of affairs. He is finally able to take a more individualistic stance rather than just immersing himself in his work to busy himself and instead of morning his loss of Judy is relishes in himself and stops crying about the life he could have had. Therefore, in the end, there is a sense of closure, which does garner a fairly optimism and pleasurable element. He is finally free from the trance Judy put him in and is able to move on instead of letting her dictate his life. Since he would usually drop everything after one mention of Judy, his dismissal of his urge to reconnect with her shows his growth and that he is poised to live for himself, which makes the ending more optimistic, but not necessarily pleasurable per se.