America’s economy boomed during the 1920’s bringing with it a new way of life for everyone, especially women. New innovations such as the phonograph, radio and movies all helped cultivate a new generation based on social excess. The automobile afforded young people the freedom and independence to go places and socialize more with the opposite sex than ever before. With a changing idea of morality some women personified a new style: the flapper. Women started to dress provocatively, listen to jazz music, smoke cigarettes, drive cars, and wear their hair in a short bob. They became free spirited and more charismatic than ever before liberating themselves from the traditional feminine roles and thus creating a new modern woman. However, Fitzgerald alludes to the fact that the “new woman” of the roaring twenties was not born a flapper. Many women, especially the older generation did not approve of the flapper lifestyle. In “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” Marjorie says to Bernice, “I hate dainty minds, but a girl has to be dainty in person. If she looks like a million dollars she can talk about Russia, ping-pong, or the League of Nations and get away with it” (Fitzgerald 35). Marjorie is telling her that a modern girl can get away with a sharp mind, as long as she holds on to some feminine traditions. A man still has to know he is in the company of a lady, not a buddy. In “Head and Shoulders” Marcia says, “I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s up to the old head now. Shoulders is out of business” (19). Now expecting a baby, she has to rely on her head, not shoulders or physical attributes in order to make money. Women will always have ties to traditional femininity, regardless of how hard they try to be different. In “Bernice Bobs Her Hair…
…r lifestyle, both are feminine by nature and upbringing. Being brought up by their Victorian mothers and later marrying and having children they still have roots in traditional feminine roles. With the roaring twenties over, flapper’s had to transition in order to adapt to the new circumstances. In “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” she adapts to her new style, but has not completely lost the traditional feminine values she holds inside. In “Head and Shoulders” Marcia’s traditional femininity takes over her new lifestyle as wife and mother, but her literary success still holds on to some of her modern woman mentality. Both Bernice and Marcia adapted to their new roles as young modern women embedded in traditional qualities.
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Works CitedFitzgerald, F S, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A NewCollection. New York: Scribner, 1989. Print.
