Clean, Structurally Sound, and Precise
Fitzgerald is truly one of the masters of the short story. His works are beautifully structured, well paced, and thoroughly engaging. How, you ask, does he manage to hit the nail on the head almost every time? The answer becomes clear the more you read – his style is remarkably consistent, precise, and never sloppy. This is particularly true in "Bernice"; Fitzgerald is always in complete control of his narration, and there is nary a point of weakness in the whole thing. Reading Fitzgerald's work, we see that he was a consummate craftsman, working tirelessly to smooth any bumps in his stories. The component parts of "Bernice" work together like a finely tuned machine, smoothly moving towards the surprise ending, in which everything explodes (because it's supposed to). If we look at the very first pages of the story, we can see how carefully the author introduces us to the world of Marjorie and her crowd; he draws us in slowly, building our expectations and our excitement until the characters at the center of the plot are revealed.