It's Every Girl for Herself in Bernice Bobs Her Hair
Picture a fragile glass merry-go-round, a menagerie, if you will, of adolescent social classes and structure. The animals revolve, always mindlessly following the one in front, each measuring his own height compared to his neighbors. If you fall short or fall behind, never fear, just throw a jagged rock and shatter Mr. Popularity in front, take his place, and the merry-go-round revolves still. There is no world outside, nothing matters more than this brittle status-seeking ambition and the taboos, requirements, and rewards that come with it. Every action is fair game, whatever it takes to achieve your supremacy is allowed and accepted. Fitzgerald's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", from his collection The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, revolves significantly around this "semicruel world of adolescence" (26), where, as the character Marjorie eloquently states, "these days it's every girl for herself" (30).
Fitzgerald opens the story at a dance, the setting itself creating an immediate and vivid picture of the rotating social classes. Teenagers whirl in, whirl about, and some, "A few disappointed stags caught in midfloor as they had been about to cut in subsided listlessly back to the walls" (26), whirl directly out of the popularity-ring. These unfortunately pathetic young men didn't make the cut, because "this was not like the riotous Christmas dances - these summer hops were considered just pleasantly warm and exciting" (26); they were neither suave nor provocative enough to climb the social ladder. Apparently, charm and wit buy popularity- those without must take their places on the sidelines.
Male / female relations too are a crucial and cont...
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...aids in hand. She passes by Warren's house, "and on the impulse set down her baggage, and swinging the braids like pieces of rope flung them at the wooden porch... She laughed again, no longer restraining herself." (47). The tables of the social world turn once again, and the underprivileged gains the final advantage. Mocked, forced to reform, and then punished, Bernice seems, by this final defiant action, to recommend the tossing of the pathetic social system, that in the end, gained her neither height nor length. She has merely revolved to a different place, and almost lost her identity in doing so. Social structures remain a glass merry-go-round; the more you conform and ride, the more quickly it shatters beneath you.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair." The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
The. Fitzgerald, F. S., and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection. The. New York: Scribner, 1989.
Carraway describes the atmosphere as “spilled with prodigality” (Fitzgerald 44). Gatsby’s fills his parties with wasteful extravagances like alcohol, and his efforts toward love end up as futile. The people, instead of appreciating Gatsby, backhandedly gossip about his past as a German spy, and simply partake in the alcohol being served (Fitzgerald 48). Instead of representing the upper echelon’s of 1920s’ society, in contrast to the poor, the party-goers appear weak, superficial, and unworthy of such acclaim, especially when given their tendency to gossip. With this depiction of the partiers, Fitzgerald showcases the hollow nature of 1920s society, lacking in morality and
Chambers, John B. The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. London: Macmillan/New York: St Martin's P, 1989.
Bruccoli, Matthew J. "A Brief Life of Fitzgerald." Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The F. Scott
Oates is accused of "producing too much" (676). This story is no different. Her exposition is painstaking. She sets the scene by making the main character and protagonist, Connie, parallel to an average girl in the sixties. Oates' narrator introduces Connie using elements of description which puts emphasis on the vanity of the main character. Connie's mother is quickly introduced and is used by the narrator to reveal how much disdain her mother has for her vanity. The narrator uses the main character's mother to introduce her sister, June. One is led to believe that sibling rivalry is one of the many causes that lead to the demise o...
This novel is brought to life by narrator Nick Carraway who is a moral Midwestern man, infatuated, much as Fitzgerald was, by the parties and pizzazz of the east. Gatsby is a mysterious rich man, taken by love, but caught up in the deviant nature of the days. The morals of the entire cast in this ballet are as whimsical as the sheets of Jazz music that emanated from the musicians of the day. This constant change of character was always more eloquently explained by the language Fitzgerald used, than the actual plot of the story. The language that Fitzgerald used within te story, was more indicative to the actual story than the plot itself. While the character analysis of many of the characters may seem incomplete, by simply analyzing the words that were used to describe the characters and their surroundings, one can derive an in-depth hypothesis about each.
As the play opened, Hamlet and Ophelia appeared as lovers experiencing a time of turbulence. Hamlet had just returned home from his schooling in Saxony to find that his mother had quickly remarried her dead husband's brother, and this gravely upset him. Hamlet was sincerely devoted to the idea of bloodline loyalty and sought revenge upon learning that Claudius had killed his father. Ophelia, though it seems her relationship with Hamlet is in either the developmental stage or the finalizing stage, became the prime choice as a lure for Hamlet. Laertes inadvertently opened Ophelia up to this role when he spoke with Ophelia about Hamlet before leaving for France. He allowed Polonius to find out about Hamlet's courtship of Ophelia, which led to Polonius' misguided attempts at taking care of Ophelia and obeying the king's command to find the root of Hamlet's problems. Ophelia, placed in the middle against her wishes, obeyed her father and brother's commands with little disagreement. The only time she argued was when Laertes advised her against making decisions incompatible with the expectations of Elizabethan women. Ophelia tells him, in her boldest lines of the play:
The 1920’s was a tumultuous time for a young generation in search of a little fun. After World War I, gender roles were no longer the concrete pillars of society and the roaring 20’s era was born out of the ensuing chaos. This chaos included jazz, loose morals, and the sale of illegal alcohol that would ensure this generation of rabble-rousers would be notorious. Many writers attempted to capture the essence of this remarkable time. One of the most prolific of these writers, and one of the biggest contributors to the language that now surrounds the time, was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through the theme of the deterioration of the American dream and American morals and traditions, F. Scott Fitzgerald reflected his life in the jazz age, including
The Great Gatsby “The Great Gatsby”, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts the vast social difference between the old aristocrats, the new self-made rich and the poor. He vividly interprets the social stratification during the roaring twenties as each group has their own problems to deal with. Old Money, who have fortunes dating from the 19th century, have built up powerful and influential social connections, and tend to hide their wealth and superiority behind a veneer of civility. The New Money made their fortunes in the 1920s boom and therefore have no social connections and tend to overcompensate for this lack with lavish displays of wealth. As usual, the No Money gets overlooked by the struggle at the top, leaving them forgotten or ignored.
We first meet Ophelia when she is talking with her brother Laertes, who attempting to educate her about the ways of the world. He warns her not to get too close to Hamlet, for Hamlet is "subject to his birth," (1.3, 18) he cannot choose who he loves. His caring advice for his sister, though, is lined with undertones of accusation. He warns her that even "the chariest maid is prodigal enough,"(1.3, 36) implying that even though she may seem modest, but her intentions could very well be the opposite. He attacks her virginal nature, heaving the burden of other, more crass, women upon this frail beauty. She, though a member of the more seemingly dim and weak sex, replies very wittily to this, "Do not, as some ungracious pastors do...reck not his own rede." (1.3, 47-51), advising, and possibly implying, the same things to her dear brother, showing their mutual respect for each other.
...at accuse her of being a harlot. In fact he recommends her to enroll in a nunnery, which would imply that she was no better then a common tart. Hamlet constantly creates situations where Ophelia is torn between different obligations and therefore is always at fault according to him.
The feature “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is collected in Fitzgerald’s book Flapper and Philosophy that published in 1920. Flapper, “a ‘new breed’ of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior.”(Wikipedia, par. 1) For readers from different cultural background, their understandings of the story are considerably different. For example, a woman brought up in a conservative culture, she probably believes marriages are “tiresome colorless,” and wishes to be a “beautiful bundle of [cloth]” that has no own mind. (Fitzgerald, 7) In turn, her interpretation of reading is truly subjective and could be misreading. Flappers are symbols of liberation, feminism and the powers of women. By doing what exactly Marjorie says, (praising males, announcing the plan of bobbing her hair, making bold, humorous and fresh remakes), Bernice becomes well liked. In a modern western woman’s eye, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” illustrated a transformation of a traditional, boring country girl to a modern, flipper, pleasure-seeking woman who liberate herself from the suppression of their male counterparts. “Twenty minutes later….Her hair was not curly, and now it lay in lank lifeless blocks on the both sides of her suddenly
The reader is left guessing on Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia through his various insults, sexual innuendos, and admitted desire. Hamlet’s claim, “God hath given you one face, and you / Make yourselves another.” (3.1.155-156) is laced with irony and hypocrisy given Hamlet’s own deception regarding true feelings. This proclamation comes at the end of a lengthy tirade against Ophelia and womankind in general for their conniving deceit leading men astray. The fact that Hamlet cannot see this duplicity in his very own actions shows the double standard he holds for females. Ophelia’s immediate reaction is one of shock and defense due to the aggressive nature of Hamlet’s attack. She calls out “O, woe is me!” (3.1.174) in distress to the ferocity of Hamlet and is unable to form a particularly coherent response akin to the ones seen against Laertes and Polonius. She does show her intelligence and rebellion from this assumption of power by Hamlet in her songs while Hamlet is gone. While many attribute her madness to the death of her father, a large portion of her instability should be attributed to Hamlet and his earlier actions. In her first introduction as insane she sings, “And I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine. / Then up he rose and donned his clothes / And dropped the chamber door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more.” (4.5.55-60). Due to her references to sexuality and deceit the
Such comedy emphasizes wit, whether true or false…” (Bacon). As a comedy of manners, the play accomplishes its goal of revealing the shallow mindset of the Victorian high society through satirical, yet critical, tone. In his book, Oscar Wilde, Erickson refers to the play as “Wilde’s comic masterpiece” (Ericksen, 145). When critiquing the play, the Times correctly noted a quality in the language of The Importance of Being Earnest that foiled every expectation: “Mr. Oscar Wilde’s peculiar vein of epigram does not accord too well with flippant action. Its proper vein is among serious people, or so we have been taught to think. In a farce it gives one the sensation of drinking wine out of the wrong sort of glass: it conveys to the palate a new sensation, which in the end, however, is discovered to be not unpleasing” (Powell, 119). It seems that the reason for Wilde’s incredible success with his satirical play is due to the fact that it contradicts the purpose of a farce, so where “a typical farce dissolves into bland conventionality, Wilde strikes at the root of accepted standards” (Powell,
Like many of Shakespeare’s tragic plays each has to have a tragic hero. Each of these tragic heroes would have a tragic flaw, they were all from a noble class and would each face their tragedy with dignity. The ultimate flaw of each of these characters would vary in each of Shakespeare’s plays; Macbeths’ tragic flaw was ambition while King Lear’s was that of arrogance. However, Othello is one of the unique tragic heroes as he harboured many flaws such as gullibility, naivety and jealousy.