Fitzgerald uses setting as a symbol of Dexter's changing state of mind during the course of his relationship with Judy. Initially, his restlessness in his position as caddy to the wealthy residents of his home town fills him with sadness, which Fitzgerald expresses through the landscape: as Dexter skis over the snow-covered fairways, he notes that "at these times the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy" as he is "haunted by ragged sparrows" and "desolate sand-boxes knee-deep in crusted ice."