Directions: Read the passage below and answer the
questions that follow.
HOW DOES THE SEASON AFFECT THE MOOD?
Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-
room houses with a neurasthenic (exhausted, broken
down) cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green's father
owned the second best grocery store in Black Bear-the
best one was "The Hub," patronized by the wealthy
people from Sherry Island—and Dexter caddied only for
pocket-money.
In the fall when the days became crisp and gray, and the
long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a
box, Dexter's skis moved over the snow that hid the
fairways of the golf course. At these times the country
gave him a feeling of profound melancholy-it offended
him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness
(inactive period), haunted by ragged sparrows for the long
season. It was dreary, too, that on the tees where the gay
colors fluttered in summer there were now only the
desolate sandboxes knee-deep in crusted ice. When he
crossed the hills the wind blew cold as misery, and if the
sun was out he tramped with his eyes squinted up
against the hard dimensionless glare.
-Excerpted from "Winter Dreams" in All the Sad Young Men by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
(1) What is the current season (time) of the year?
(2) Is the action taking place in the present, the past, or
the future? (What verb tense is used?)
(3) In the excerpt, where (place) is Dexter and what is
he doing? What details act as clues?
(4) How does Fitzgerald describe the same setting
(place) in fall, in winter, and in summer?
(5) What is the effect of the scenery on Dexter? What
atmosphere, or mood, does the author convey
through his character?
