Steinbeck makes use of an unusual structural device in Winter, switching between three different styles of narrative points of view. The novel is presented in two halves, Part One and Part Two, and each half starts with two chapters written in third person narration. After these two chapters in each half, the point of view changes to first person, narrated by the protagonist, Ethan Hawley.[9] The four chapters in third person narrative are mostly presented from the point of view of Ethan, but not in first person, a technique known as free indirect discourse, or free indirect speech. There are two exceptions to this: the first is an interlude at the start of chapter 12 where the point of view switches to that of Margie: "when a more intimate view is needed of the seductress Margie Young-Hunt . . . the third person narrative reappears".[10] The second exception is the interlude at the start of chapter 11 which is presented by the author as an omniscient narrator, before the chapter reverts to Ethan's point of view. The three different narrative styles are therefore: omniscient narrator (chapter 11 part), free indirect discourse from multiple points of view (chapters 1, 2, 11 and 12) and first person narrative from a single point of view (the rest of the book).
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