Fitzgerald’s writing style in “Winter Dreams” is lyrical and poetic. The third-person narrator stays close to Dexter’s inner experience, capturing with grandiose language the highs and lows of Dexter’s life (and particularly of his volatile relationship with Judy), as well as the setting, the social dynamics between characters, and more. While many of Fitzgerald’s Modernist contemporaries were using a more minimalist style, Fitzgerald did not shy away from expressive prose.
Consider the following passage, for example, that comes when Dexter and Judy have a passionate night together after a period apart:
In then, with a rustle of golden cloth. He slammed the door. Into so many cars she had stepped—like this—like that—her back against the leather, so—her elbow resting on the door—waiting. She would have been soiled long since had there been anything to soil her— except herself—but this was her own self outpouring.
Fitzgerald’s writing style here is notable for a few reasons. First, he uses dashes strategically in order to communicate the frantic and desperate nature of Dexter and Judy’s sexual encounter after a prolonged period apart. The prose here zeroes in on the movements of Dexter and Judy’s bodies—bringing readers more closely into the scene—and then moves out as the narrator waxes poetic about how there was nothing “to soil” Judy and that this moment “was her own self outpouring.” The lyrical language here highlights how deeply Dexter longs for and loves Judy, despite the fact that she has repeatedly broken his heart.
