From A Letter from Lin, Spring Wrongs, and Matsu in March, to Prison Notebooks, Calabash Alley Spring Dream, and Last Descendant of the Siraya People, Yeh's fiction evolved from romanticism to the realism which he later invested such effort in extolling. His writing style gradually lost that fanciful touch, and his focus became increasingly internalized into literary idealism.
從〈林君來的信〉、〈春怨〉、〈三月的媽祖〉，到〈獄中記〉、〈葫蘆巷春夢〉、〈西拉雅族的末裔〉等，葉石濤小說從浪漫主義逐漸蛻變成他後來力倡的寫實主義，浪漫色彩漸次從文字風格中退位，內化到文學理想。