The Fitzgerald Flapper
Which came first, the flapper or the Fitzgerald flapper? This question may prove as difficult as its proverbial counterpart. But it is a question well worth asking in an effort to examine the flapper, a cultural icon of the 1920s. This new woman heralded an end to the traditional Victorian woman, as well as the relatively new Gibson girl. But where did she come from? And what was Fitzgerald's contribution to the creation of such an icon? Fitzgerald's short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair and novel This Side of Paradise will be used to make such an assessment. Finally, one must ask how the flapper, in turn, contributed to Fitzgerald's career, for the good and the bad. Although the flapper may have guaranteed the success of This Side of Paradise and earned Fitzgerald the position of spokesman for a generation, it may have also stifled the progression of his work and confused critics for years to come.
First, it would be helpful to establish a working definition of the flapper, prior to Fitzgerald. Coined in England, the flapper was used to describe a somewhat awkward, fledgling-type girl, in the throws of budding womanhood ("Flappers in the Roaring Twenties"). She is still learning how to move in her body, gangly and thin. Another source puts forth a very different definition of the flapper. This definition, found in "Mrs. Stratton of Oak Knoll" asserts that a flapper is English slang for a society girl who has made her debut and hasn't found a husband ("F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary"). She is an old maid of sorts, gone to seed. The first of these two definitions seems the more likely origin of the Fitzgerald flapper.
Prior to World War I, most women in the America still behaved and dr...
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...e to adapt to a writer's changing objectives.
Works Cited
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Fitzgerald, F S, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New
Serving as the symbol of a heroine during the Roaring 20s, young women strived to obtain the flapper image while youth culture was on the rise due to urbanization. Although this concept was a highly popularized ideal during this era, it is not entirely clear where the term “flapper” originated from. According to the book The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s written by Paula Fass, “In Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century, [a flapper] meant a woman of loose morals, possibly a prostitute.” Reflecting this newfound sense of maturity and sexual independence openly expressed by females who adopted the desired lifestyle of a flapper, women emerged from the restricting societal norms of the early to mid-19th century and engaged in more scandalous activities, such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol
The great Gatsby gives us an accurate insight into the 1920s zeitgeist regarding the role of women in society. America was in a state of an economic boom and rapid change. Society had become less conservative after world war one. The role of women was revolutionary during this time and although women had a lot more freedom now; they were still confined to their sexist role within society; Men were still seen as the dominant gender. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the extremities of gender and social class, and the lack of independence this brought upon women. This essay will discuss the three major female characters and the ideas that Fitzgerald confronts of female stereotypes of the 1920s.
Mizener, Arthur, ed. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.
The twentieth century was filled with many advances which brought a variety of changes to the world. However, these rapid advances brought confusion to almost all realms of life; including gender roles, a topic which was previously untouched became a topic of discourse. Many authors of the time chose to weigh in on the colloquy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, gender role confusion, characteristic of modernist literature, is seen in Nick Carraway and Edna Pontillier as they are the focal points in the exploration of what it means to be a man or a woman, their purpose, place, and behavior in society.
In the 1920s, a new woman was born. She smoked, drank, danced, and voted. She cut her hair, wore make-up, and went to petting parties. She was giddy and took risks. She was a flapper.
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Trilling, Lionel. "F. Scott Fitzgerald." Critical Essays on Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: Hall, 1984. 13-20.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925