Masters of the art of literary artifice, lies, and characters who wear masks rather than their true selves. Although one author deploys an almost newspaper-like dispassionate style, and the other is more poetic in her use of the language, both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Katherine Anne Porter have been called by these appellations because of the ideological complexity of their characters, and the distanced literary ways in which the authors view these characters. Despite the fact that one might assume Dexter Green of "Winter Dreams" is autobiographical, Fitzgerald narrates his character's striving for social success in America with a tone of cool objectivity. Although she herself traveled to Mexico, Katherine Anne Porter views her protagonist Laura's attempt to embrace a new ideology in Mexico with an equally skeptical eye.

             In W.J. Reeves essay, "Lies and Literature: Lying used as a literary device," Reeves identifies F. Scott Fitzgerald as a great American author who used the American love of lies and liars as the ideological cornerstone of his major works such as his novel The Great Gatsby as well as a more minor take such as "Winter Dreams." Winter Dreams" first appeared in Metropolitan Magazine in December 1922. It was written while Fitzgerald was planning, The Great Gatsby. It also examines a boy whose ambitions become identified with a selfish rich girl from a young and impressionable age in his development. .

             Dexter Green is a social liar, a poor boy who feigns good manners and good breeding. And by doing this, Reeves suggests, Green is another quintessential American Fitzgerald boy who makes good in the 'American' way, a way that is ultimately hollow and empty of real satisfaction and success. Reeves cites at the beginning of his essay a conservative educational text called The Book of Virtues by former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett who "describes lying as an `easy tool' of concealment which can harden into a malignant vice," and states that "most Americans "share a respect for certain fundamental traits such as honesty, compassion, and courage.