Winter Dreams: Style 1 key example

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.

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