The golden girl is the dream. She is the epitome of what success stands for, her status, wealth, beauty all add to the overall effect she has on men and the power it holds. In the 1920s through to today society craves status, power and money because that is what we have decided will make us happy and satisfied with our lives. Fitzgerald conveys the unrealistic hope of the golden girl through significant connections within the novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’, the short stories ‘Winter Dreams’ and ‘Babes In The Woods’ and the film inspired by Fitzgerald’s short story, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. There is a constant theme in each of these texts of the protagonist never quite obtaining the golden girl they so long for, no matter how close they seem to get. For each of these characters, they are brainwashed from day dot that obtaining that ‘golden girl’ will make their lives complete because she is the dream. Fitzgerald strings this underlying connection throughout the texts to critique society’s view on life and how we are easily confused with the idea that obtaining things/people will make us happy. Although, however materialistic we as society may be, these things will not make us happy without the realisation within ourselves that we as people can only be as content as we believe we are.

Jay Gatsby, the male protagonist in the novel, The Great Gatsby, paves the road of what some may call the American dream. Born into a lower-class family and then managing through ‘hard work’ (or corruption) to live a life of parties, wealth and status. However, for Gatsby, the only way he would ever feel truly happy or in his eyes, ‘make the American dream’, would be when he had attained his golden girl, Daisy. Daisy was first introduced to Gatsby when he was a young soldier who had yet to come into any wealth or power, Daisy seemed like a dream with her beauty, money and status and to him, became the symbol of success. They share a kiss and “At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”, this becomes obvious that Daisy became the literal epitome of his dreams. Blossoming ‘like a flower’ means to grow and for Gatsby, the idea of Daisy’s love only grew more important for him to ever be satisfied with his life. Daisy, his golden girl, once seeming attainable (their kiss) embodies the vision of his perfect life which is referred to as the ‘incarnation’ being ‘complete’. The idea of his golden girl only after a small taste of this golden girl, the hope of attaining her in his life seems realistic and since then “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” The green light was the hope he believed in that he and Daisy could be together, this idea made him devote his entire life to her without ever managing to enjoy his life without her. The life with her was seemingly always just out of reach and receding further away each time it became within grasp. The life with Daisy was never going to be attainable and the unrealistic idea of a perfect life that society had created, prevented Gatsby from ever living his own life with content and happiness as he was always reaching unrealistically high. A life with Daisy, the golden girl and her love became confused to Gatsby as just another ‘thing’ for him to obtain. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s life to critique society and its confusion with materialism, happiness and love and how without changing and challenging our values we will never be satisfied with our lives.

In Fitzgerald’s short story, ‘Winter Dreams’, he follows the life of the male protagonist, Dexter Green. Dexter, like Gatsby, was born into the lower class realm that could only dream of attaining the riches and status of the upper-class livers of the American dream. As a young boy, Dexter acted as a golf caddy for the wealthy and he quickly fell in love and became confused with the idea of a perfect life and a life with money. He too was love-struck with his own golden girl, Judy Jones, from an impossibly young age without the knowledge of her as a real person. To Dexter, she was perfect and if he could just manage to attain her, his life too would be perfect. This constructed his life’s path as he would only ever really be able to be with her if he became of the same status which was actually impossible as this high perch she sat on was merely a construction in his mind and well, societies. It becomes clear that the obsession Dexter, Gatsby and society has with the golden girl takes its own toll on her too. Judy reveals her sorrows in her unrealistic image with the complaint, “I’m more beautiful than anybody else,” she said brokenly, “why can’t I be happy?”. This exposes the harsh reality the image of the golden girl takes on not only the chasers but the golden girl herself. Society constructs this idea that they are perfect so intensely, that they themselves begin to believe they are what we perceive them, and this is what causes them a life of constant hunger. Judy, the golden girl of this story “… was entertained only by the gratification of her desires and by the direct exercise of her own charm.”, she cannot manage to be happy with her life because nothing is ever quite good enough for her. This exposes to us that the golden girl can be at peace with her life because of the image we build of her and in result the people in chase of her will too never be content with their lives because she can never be as good as they desire. Daisy is similarly cursed, she wants Gatsby, then Tom, then Gatsby, then Tom, each time her reasons for change are swayed by materialistic means. These materialistic means are what society has led us to believe will result in happiness. Gatsby and Dexter both ran lives, where they were chasing an unattainable girl whos reality, was never as sweet as her image. This chase led both to crave the golden girl and possess her rather than to ‘love’ them which is reflecting the materialism that is so present in society in the 1920s and today, which we still unconsciously desire. The difference though, between Dexter and Gatsby, is that Dexter was able to overcome the power Judy held over him and realise that the perfect life he had built around her really was just a dream, whereas Gatsby was unable to and his denial of reality rotted his life all the way to the end. The difference between the two male protagonists is displayed by Fitzgerald to highlight to us as a society that there are certain things such as the golden girl that we need to let go of in order to be happy.

Babes in the woods, a short story by Fitzgerald where the point of view is reversed. The protagonist in this story is the literal golden girl who has status, beauty and wealth and the side character being the eager male who longs this ‘perfect’ girl. The story quickly introduces the idea that she is a wanted female and that “Kenneth Powers is simply mad to meet you. He’s stayed over a day from college and he’s coming to-night. He’s heard so much about you—”. This introduction explains that like Judy Jones in ‘Winter Dreams’, Isabelle is desired by the rest of society for the costume she wears, rather than the reality of her beneath the surface, as Kenneth has “…heard so much about her..”, but doesn’t actually have any knowledge of her. Kenneth just like Dexter and Gatsby becomes impossibly close to a taste of the golden girl, but just misses his kiss with her and she once again is unobtainable. Isabelle and Judy both know the power they have over men being the golden girl but cannot manage to obtain any happiness through this. The pressure of being the golden girl and the need to please and meet the unrealistic standards society manufactures of them, is shown through Isabelle’s night with Kenneth. Before even arriving she’s been told that “…he was good looking, had a “line” and was properly inconstant. In fact, he summed up all the romance that her age and environment led her to desire.”. These inner thoughts of Isabelle show us that even she knows she is only attracted to him because society thinks she should be, “…all the romance that her age and environment has led her to desire.”. This pressure put on the golden girls also allows us as readers to realise why they are so unobtainable. They will never be as perfect as their chasers believe them to be, leaving them to feel lost and confused as to why they aren’t happy or content with anyone. These golden girls (Daisy, Judy and Isabelle) all are desired by men for their outermost layer that everyone sees, the materialistic and too good to be true version of themselves, this causes the golden girls to see each desirer as the same and bland. This reflects on society’s desire for an unrealistic life of perfection, the golden girl is not perfect and never was or will be, but this harsh reality is only discovered once males/society become so close within grasp and then the high expectation they once held is shattered and the low is impossibly low. All this sorrow and unhappiness caused because they could not be satisfied with what they had in the first place. The idea of the golden girl in the two short stories and novel both challenge societies morals and their disgustful lack of gratitude for what they already have in life.

The film, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, reveals the impossible chase of a life of perfection. From his first second on Earth, Benjamin Button was not normal, normal being defined as “conforming to a standard; the usual, typical or expected:”. To Benjamin, a life of pure bliss and perfection is what the rest of society would describe as fairly normal. However, for Benjamin, a perfect life would only ever be achieved once he had his own golden girl, Daisy. This became seemingly out of the question as he began his life as an old man and she as a young woman. No matter the bond they held or the fact they were actually of similar age societies presence of judgment would never let them be together. Daisy to Benjamin becomes the epitome of his perfect life and without his golden girl, he will never feel like his life is meaningful. As a reflection of the materialism the golden girls’ idea holds, Daisy ponders to Benjamin, “Would you still love me if I were old and saggy?”, Benjamin replies, “Would you still love me if I were young and had acne?”. This question brutally reflects the reality of the golden girl and how much of her charm is based off her beauty and looks, as benjamin simply cannot answer the question and can only reply with a similar one questioning her love for him. A connection here is seen throughout this film and the short story ‘Babes in the woods’, both golden girls are so caught up in the idea that they are perfect that they find it difficult to establish the difference between beauty and love and vice versa, if the men chasing them can actually establish this also. Along the timeline, he and daisy intersect paths, where they can finally be together, however, just like in ‘Babes in the Woods’ above, this dream is short-lived and quickly slips out of reach. Benjamin is left craving more of this sweet dream without ever noticing the bitter aftertaste the golden girl leaves behind. She, Daisy, the golden girl of this story, because of her immaculate image of holding a perfect life for Benjamin, will forever leave him empty as he can never fill up that whole he has decided needs to be filled by her. This idea that as people we need something of matter to fill a void that is supposedly unwhole without, is what consumes our lives with unhappiness and unfulfilled desire. The golden girl, Daisy, represents that unless we can find a place of being content with the life we live, even if it’s not what society deems normal, we will always be reaching for things we can’t have. Realistically life is full of things you can achieve and things you can’t achieve and this golden girl is something he cannot, and because Benjamin could not find peace with this, he was left to live a life of constant unwholeness, just as Isabelle too could not find satisfaction within her life because the golden girls expectation is held so high no one can reach it including the girl herself.

The golden girl’s presence and power she holds over society today and then is untouchable yet fragile and frail. Society’s desire for more and more things that seemingly make us seem happy, but are actually never attainable, is what rots people idea that they can live a life worth living. The golden girl is presented through each of these texts to emphasise that nothing is as perfect as it may seem and we need to be able to distinguish the difference between materialistic desire and the genuine desire of a happy life. Constantly the golden girl is deemed as the end of the road for a perfect life but what these chasers lack, is the knowledge that even if they do manage to get a glimpse of this life, there will always be something else they want or ‘need’ to feel complete. Unless society can chase what they truly need for happiness without materialism influencing their path, they will get lost in their pursuit and be left with nothing that really matters.