"The Ice Palace"

Sally Carrol Happer lives in Tarleton, a city in Georgia. She has lived there for entire life, and has grown bored with the monotony of daily Southern life. She strives to live in a different environment, so she plans to wed a man in the north named Harry Bellamy. Her friends are totally shocked at her choice to do this, and they plead her to stay in Georgia, but Sally specifies her need to have something more in her life. In the winter, Sally travels north to visit Harry's town and meet his friends and family. However, Sally is almost tortured by the "Ice Palace" of the north, and realizes that her true home is in Georgia. Sally returns home and is happy to take part in the same routine of Southern life.

What impressed me about this story was Fitzgerald's ability to manipulate southern accents in his dialogue. Not only did this make dialogue more interesting in the story, but it also made the setting come to life. It gives the reader a good taste of the daily routine of Southern life in the fictional city of Tarleton. In terms of the story's actual plot line, I thought that it was somewhat uneventful, but, at the same, I didn't feel like anything else really needed to happen. The story does have a lot to say about finding your place in society, even though this is entirely based on the environment. I actually wrote a poem with a similar theme: that your hometown will always stay true to you even if it has its faults. This was an overall enjoyable read, but I found myself to be more engrossed in the setting of relaxed southern life than the actual plot.