Compare Dexter's ambitions for his children in "Winter Dreams" with those expressed by Scott Fitzgerald in his letter to his daughter.

It is clear that when we consider the hopes that both
Dexter Fletcher and his creator, F. Scott Fitzgerald, have for their children, their is
a significant difference in the kind of lives they want for them. Dexter Fletcher for
example makes it obvious that, although he recognises that his middle-class background
actually gives him a certain advantage over his upper-class contemporaries, he wants his
children to be born into wealth and social position rather than to have to earn it for
themselves as he has had to:

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He had seen that, in one sense, he was better
than these men. He was newer and stronger. Yet in acknowledging to himself that he
wished his children to be like them he was admitting that he was but the rough, strong
stuff from which they eternally
sprang.

Such a wish appears
initially to be paradoxical until we realise the way that those born into wealth and
social prestige were considered as being "better" socially than those who had earned
their own way into the halls of the rich and
famous.

However, considering F. Scott Fitzgerald's advice
to his daughter as expressed in his letter, it is clear that he has very different
wishes for his daughter, built around a life that is characterised by health, duty and
courage:

All I
believe in in life is the rewards for virtue (according to your talents) and the
punishments for not fulfilling your duties, which are doubly
costly.

There is no mention
made of an inherited social position which is a birthright. Reference to concepts such
as "virtue" immediately separate it from the kind of life that Dexter Fletcher wants his
children to inherit.