" But Reeves uses Fizgerald's short story as an esample that "Bennett has it wrong. As the millennium approaches, Americans, from power brokers to the lower classes, believe in lying and prove so every day by indulging in its practice," in social, vocational, and personal contexts-and literature, as a reflection and a shaper of human life, reflects this mendacity. (Reeves, 1998, p.1) .

             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.'.

             It is interesting to note in support of Reeves thesis' about the popular support of American liars in fiction and life, and contrary to William Benett's assertion, F. Scott Firzgerald wrote his short story "Winter Dreams" for a popular magazine, not a literary trade publication-hence its cool almost advertising like style and quality of flat, direct, prose. Fitzgerald's style as well as his approval of lying was accessible to the masses, as was his subject, the commonality of lies in social mores, even though, "Fitzgerald detailed a harrowing example of how lying for self-protection can be deadly," to the soul in the long term given the angst the protagonist experiences at the end of the work. (Reeves, 1998, p.1) The four closing paragraphs of this story illustrates Dexter's sense of emptiness as the protagonist essentially grieves for the loss of his capacity to grieve and his inner emptiness.