Bernice Bobs Her Hair Have you ever at one time or another felt like an outsider? Many people do, trying desperately to fit in with their social counterparts. Whether it be in school, at work, or life in general, many yearn to be accepted by their peers and feel as though they are a part of some sort of "club" that is viewed by others as the "in" crowd. F. Scott Fitzgerald tries to express this turmoil with the short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair. He attempts to show the inner workings of the popular
In the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by Scott Fitzgerald, Bernice is pressured to be like others and to conform to society’s changing morals. Peer pressure put on by her cousin, Marjorie, and from society causes Bernice to become insecure and unsure of herself. The stresses of peer pressure are the reason that Bernice trades her important moral choices for those of the ever changing society. This results in a further understanding of peer pressure as a negative and positive tool. Marjorie
Revised Bernice Bobs Her Hair F Scott Fitzgerald 3 February, 2014 Kaley Witwer A) As the title already tell the reader, Bernice is the protagonist. She can be very unappealing at times, most because she’s a really boring and predictable character especially when most of her conversations with others lead to talking about the weather, she is also very naive because she doesn’t understand why she is unpopular with people or why boys don’t like her. At the end other the story though we like her because
In Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”, Bernice and Marjorie portray the social standing of tradition and modernity. Bernice, a traditional wealthy girl and the main character of the story, does not have a high social standing; however, because of certain events in the story, Bernice’s personality changes from a shy and obedient girl to a strong independent woman. Ultimately, Bernice’s action of asking Marjorie to teach her how to become popular in the modern world is what started her journey towards
the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the writer utilizes a plethora of features from the 1920s to bring life into the characters. Being an author during the time period, Fitzgerald employs his resources by taking his life experiences and integrating it into his work. “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a short story that takes place in the summer of 1920’s. Unfortunately, with her cousin Bernice around for a month, Marjorie knows she will not enjoy herself. Bernice is not caught up
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
the outside, has her act down to a tee. Everything is thought out from what she says, to what she wears, is thought out. Bernice decides to confront Marjorie in the kitchen the morning after hearing her lash out about her to her mother. The reader has insight to how shocked Marjorie will be after realizing she is caught when Fitzgerald sets up the scene with "Bernice paused before she threw her hand-grenade". Marjorie is trapped and Bernice's words are like a bomb exploding in the air shattering
“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” and “A White Heron” In Bernice Bobs Her Hair, Bernice has an ultimate goal to change her appearance as a way to fit into the modern world, while in A White Heron Sylvie wants to protect the natural world from the hands of men from the outside world. The contrast between these two characters shows how innocence can be easily influenced. In Bernice Bobs Her Hair, Long hair symbolizes feminism and beauty, but bobbed hair represents is more of a
in The Blue Hotel, The Displaced Person, Bernice Bobs her Hair, and Novel In Dubious Battle Whenever a stranger enters an unfamiliar society, a clash between the outsider’s practices and society’s guidelines undoubtedly occurs. Whether the resulting conflict minimally or powerfully affects the people involved depends on the situation, but usually the results are monumental. In the short stories “The Blue Hotel,” “The Displaced Person,” and “Bernice Bobs her Hair,” and the novel In Dubious Battle
in the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”. Both Bernice and Marjorie are young teens dealing with the pressure of being popular and fitting in. Bernice, being the quieter, shyer girl, deals with trying to fit in in a place she feels she doesn’t belong. Marjorie, the louder, seemingly confident girl puts on a front about who she is, deep down being an extremely jealous person. The characters in the story are both dealing with insecurities, each reacting in there own way. Bernice, from the short story
Jealousy has a huge impact on all the characters in “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”. Bernice shows the first signs of jealousy when she overhears Marjorie talking to her mom about how all of her friends think Bernice is incredibly dull. Marjorie basically has to beg boys to cut in on Bernice while they are dancing. Even Warren, one of Marjorie’s most beloved beaus tries to flirt with Bernice and cannot do so because she does not know how to effectively communicate with boys. Warren is infatuated with Marjorie
Innovating Women: a woman’s reading of “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” Reading is an experience of art; without readers’ interaction, the meaning of any literary work is insufficient. “[Norman] Holland believes that we react to literary texts with the same psychological responses we bring to our daily life....That is, in various ways we unconsciously recreate in the text the world that exists in our mind.” (Tyson, 182) By telling a story that centers on the conflicts between two wealth young females whose
When I first read “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”, I naturally read it with a marxist lens. There is clear connections to ideology, commodification, and the class system. Ideology is a belief system that comes from cultural conditioning. (Tyson 54) Racism is an ideology that I saw the Harvey family believe in. Racism devalues “lower” races. This is clearly done on page 3 of the text. Marjorie explains to her mother that Bernice is boring and that no one likes her. Marjorie goes the extra mile by saying "I
In both the film and the book Bernice Bobs Her Hair, there are some main ideas that mirror and deflect on another. In the book, everything has to be detailed and described down to every last detail, while in the movie, the director had to make sure that the items in the house, barbershop, and in any setting was just as it was in that time period. Many things that were explained in the story go by so quickly in the movie and you have to take notice of every little detail that went into the making
known and loved. It’s not always easy to have all and in some stories it’s not possible to have it all. Therefore it’s called the “American Dream,” with the word dream because it can mean what people hope for. In the stories The Great Gatsby and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” the characters strive for the American Dream. To begin with money is the main thing people think of when they hear american dream. People wish to be rich and no one wants to be poor but not everyone can be rich. “They were careless
Some authors write for a living, but most have something to say about the society in which they live. In stories such as “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”, the previous claim is evident. The authors of these stories act as “moral purifiers” presenting their case through their creative works that, left up to the reader, may have a positive impact upon society. Whether their points are about the treatment of the mentally ill, about fashion statements
F. Scott Fitzgerald, having lived through the era of the “New Women” in the 1920’s, uses two female protagonists in both his novel Great Gatsby (e.g. Daisy Buchanan) and his short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (e.g. Marjorie Harvey). As such, he personifies his desired theme to define the female presence shaped by shifts in society during the 1920’s. He uses an apathetic and cynical tone that paints each character in a negative light. In other words, American women were known as having unequal rights
story, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, was written in the “Jazz Age” of the 1920s. In contrast, Babylon Revisited, was written in the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. Through his deliberate and descriptive writing style, F. Scott Fitzgerald differentiates the two stories by using contrasting characters, and central conflicts. While there are not many similarities between Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Babylon Revisited,
Francis Scott Fitzgerald composed stories that told the truths of the Roaring 20’s and the Jazz Age, changing American Literature by giving hid audience the social truths and “that’s-just-the-way-it-is” (Bruccoli.) form of writing. In Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the illusion of appearance rather than identity leads to jealousy and bewilderment. To develop this thematic idea, Fitzgerald uses imagery, characterization, and irony to demonstrate his characters’
directly resulted from the shallow lives that many of the affluent people maintained. Often some of these people cared more about their appearances than their personalities and placed their character second to their reputation; for example, Bernice in Bernice Bobs Her Hair learned her cousin’s pick-up lines to win over local teenage boys, and she bobbed her hair to earn validation from her peers. Correspondingly, some poor people also grew depressed during the Modern Era. For instance, some observed