Critical Analysis of American Short Story Writing: Two Stories

This essay provides a critical analysis of two American short stories, "An Alcoholic Case" and "Winter Dreams," written by Scott Fitzgerald. The analysis focuses on the element of character development, highlighting how the characters evolve and interact within the narratives. "An Alcoholic Case" explores the dedication of a nurse to an alcoholic patient, contrasting the nurse's changing emotions with the static nature of the patient's behavior. "Winter Dreams" examines the complex relationship between Judy Jones and Dexter Green, emphasizing Judy's character arc from a high-handed woman to someone who settles for a less-than-ideal marriage. The essay concludes that Fitzgerald's use of character development, plot, poignancy, and eloquent writing style contributes significantly to the enduring appeal of American short stories globally. The essay highlights the effectiveness of these techniques in capturing and maintaining reader interest throughout the stories.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN SHORT STORY WRITING
Critical Analysis of American Short Story Writing
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Author Note

1CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN SHORT STORY WRITING
American short stories are always a pleasure to read, primarily because of their
brevity, the manner in which such stories deal with sensitive themes and the appealing
language and style that is used by American short story writers to catch the attention of
readers, resulting in American short stories being quite widely read in different parts of the
globe (Cox, 2016). This essay critically analyzes two famous American short stories namely,
“An Alcoholic Case” and “Winter Dreams” using the essential elements of American short
story writing, namely, character development. The essay concludes that the tools and
techniques of American short story writing have an important contribution to make to their
popularity worldwide.
An Alcoholic Case is a beautiful and poignant short story written by renowned
American author, Scott Fitzgerald. The story about the commitment that is shown by a young
nurse towards an alcoholic, who is entrusted in her care, but who is brutal in his treatment
towards her, whenever she tells him that he is not allowed to drink. At times, the alcoholic
man becomes so violent in his behavior towards her that she begins to feel unsafe and decides
to quit her job because working for him would mean a risk to her physical and mental
existence. The nurse consequently approaches her superior for a switch in the job and is
granted the same. However, a feeling of dedication and commitment compels the nurse to
make a return to her patient, and to care for him, even though he is refusing to mend his
ways. The nurse pleads with the alcoholic man again and again not to drink and does
everything in her power to keep him from taking recourse to the consumption of alcoholic.
Ultimately, out of the frustration and agony that he experienced over not being able to drink,
the man commits suicide in front of the nurse, who feels entirely helpless as she watches him
take his own life (Achilles & Bergman, 2016).

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The character development of the nurse in the story is one that evolves in a
continuous manner while the character of the alcoholic man in the story remains quite static.
The alcoholic man is relentless about not mending his ways, and is not willing to listen to the
pleas of the nurse when she tells him he should not be drinking. He feels inclined to be
violent towards the nurse in the story whenever she tells him not to drink, from the start of
the story till the end of the story, when the same inclination towards violence compels him to
take his own life. The nurse on the other hand starts her duties with care and commitment,
becomes impatient and tired of her patient’s abuse in the middle and decides to leave her job.
However, her concern for him nags away at her inner being and she once again reconciles
herself to the fact that she needs to go back to him and care for him. The character of the
nurse in the story thus alternates between one of care and consideration and of fear and
frustration. This development in her character is something that truly captures the attention of
the reader from the outset of the story right until the end (Bausch, 2015).
Winter Dreams is also a short story that has been written by Scot Fitzgerald and
which is quite famous for its character development. The story essentially revolves around
two main characters namely Judy Jones and Dexter Green. The latter is a successful
entrepreneur who finds himself falling in love with Judy. Dexter is a man of humble
upbringing while Judy is a girl who belongs to quite a wealthy family. Judy is initially quite
snobbish and high handed towards the advances that are made by Dexter Green as she feels
that he is not good enough for her in any way. In fact, at the start of the story, Judy bears such
an attitude towards all the men who come her way and not just Dexter. While she is scornful
of his advances and plays long and hard with his emotions, Judy becomes jealous when
Dexter gets engaged to a different woman. She believes that he should not be marrying
anyone else but her, especially given the fact that she is more beautiful than any other woman
that she has set her eyes on. However, towards the end of the story, Judy is coerced into

3CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN SHORT STORY WRITING
marrying a man who is not half as good as Dexter and who ends up treating her quite
shabbily (Reid, 2017).
The character of Judy is one that develops at a slow and steady pace in the story
Winter Dreams. At the start of the story, Judy is a woman who is characterized by a high
handed personality. She is a wealthy girl who has seen a lot of money growing up and who
believes that she cannot easily be won over. Such a notion causes her to reject the advances
that are made by Dexter Green towards her, or the advances made by any other man of the
same standing for that matter. She feels that there is no person in the world who is worthy of
her hand. Tragically however, such disdainful behavior on the part of Judy Jones causes her
to in the end marry a man who is quite cruel in his treatment towards her. When she marries
him, she has no choice but to accept him, given that she has rejected by now the advances of
all suitable and good natured men, the most prominent of them being Dexter Green. The
character of Judy Jones begins with a rise and ends with a fall, with humiliation being what
her character is exposed to in the end, settling for a man who is not worthy of her in the least
(Smith, 2018).
Thus, the primary elements of American short story writing namely, character
development and plot outline are those that are clearly present in the stories An Alcoholic
Case and Winter Dreams by Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has used all the tools and techniques
of American short story writing in addition to elements like poignancy, and a lucid and
eloquent writing style to produce absolute masterpieces. All elements of American short story
writing have been treated very well in both of the short stories particular with regard to
character development. What is evident from the above analysis is that the tools and
techniques of American short story writing have a direct role to play in capturing the
attention of a reader, gripping it and keeping it hooked right until the story ends, leading to
such stories being extremely popular among readers worldwide.

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References
Achilles, J., & Bergmann, I. (2016). 12. Liminality and the Short Story: Boundary Crossings
in American, Canadian, and British Writing. English and American Studies in
German, 5(1), 18-19
Bausch, R. (Ed.). (2015). The Norton anthology of short fiction. WW Norton & Company.
Cox, A. (2016). Writing Short Stories: A Routledge Writer's Guide. Routledge
Reid, I. (2017). The short story (Vol. 34). Routledge.
Smith, J. J. (2018). American Short Story Cycle. Edinburgh University Press