Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"

"With the most wholesome and innocent intentions in the world she had stolen Marjorie's property." The context of this quotation presents a very interesting role reversal. The fact that Marjorie considers Warren to be her property is the complete opposite of how women viewed men during the time period in which this story was written. During that period, men often considered women to be property. Prehaps the quote was meant to shock the reader.

"With the most wholesome and innocent intentions in the world she had stolen Marjorie's property."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EthanShepley/2008/02/past_possessive_1.html

““She’s absolutely hopeless !” It was Marjorie’s voice. “Oh, I know what you’re going to say ! So many people have told you how pretty and sweet she is, and how she can cook !, What of it ? She has a bum time. Men don’t like her.”” “I’ve done my best. I’ve been polite and I’ve made men dance with her, but they just won’t stand being bored”. “…….I’ve even tried to drop her hints about clothes and things, and she’s been furious--given me the funniest looks……“.

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AndreaNestler/2008/02/can_you_say_marjorie_is_self_c.html

"'I've decided,' began Bernice without preliminaries, ' that maybe you're right about things--possibly not. But if you'll tell me why your friends aren't--aren't interested in me I'll see if I can do what you want me to.'"

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AngelaPalumbo/2008/02/conformity_is_for_weaklings.html

"Bending over she found one of the braids of Marjorie's hair, followed it up with her hand to the point nearest the head, and then holding it a little slack so that the sleeper would feel no pull, she reached down with the shears and severed it" (Fitzgerald section 5, paragraph 30).

To view my comments on this quote, visit the link below:

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EricaGearhart/2008/02/teenagers_bobs_and_liberation.html

“No matter how beautiful or brilliant a girl may be, the reputation of not being frequently cut in on makes her position at a dance unfortunate.”

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AngelicaGuzzo/2008/02/unpopularity_on_the_dance_floo.html

“Every young man with a large income leads the life of a hunted partridge.”
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/GretaCarroll/2008/02/the_jane_austen_factor.html

"At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide." ~ sec. 2

So which would you rather have? Here, you decide:

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MadelynGillespie/2008/02/from_ant_hills_to_shadowed_gro.html

"There was a moment's silence while she did unimpressive things with her fan" (Fitzgerald Part I, Paragraph 30) This quote also goes along with: "She turned an ungraceful red and became clumsy with her fan" (Fitzgerald Part I, Paragraph 37).

You can read the rest of my agenda item here: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/LaurenMiller/2008/02/a_fan_that_can_heat_things_up.html

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by Fitzgerald

“ ‘Where’d yuh get ‘at stuff? ‘At’s a bearded lady he just finished shavin.’” (Section V Paragraph 63)

View more about my agenda item at http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JeanineONeal/2008/02/bernice_the_bearded_lady.html

"An eternity of minutes later, riding down-town through the late afternoon beside Warren, the others following in Roberta's car close behind, Bernice had all the sensations of Marie Antoinette bound for the guillotine in a tumbrel. Vaguely she wondered why she did not cry out that it was all a mistake. It was all she could do to keep from clutching her hair with both hands to protect it from the suddenly hostile world. Yet she did neither. Even the thought of her mother was no deterrent now. This was the test supreme of her sportsmanship; her right to walk unchallenged in the starry heaven of popular girls."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AllisonHall/2008/02/starryeyed_popularity_seekers.html

"No matter how beautiful or brilliant a girl may be, the reputation of not being frequently cut in on makes her position at a dance unfortunate.”

Read the rest of my agenda item at:
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/StephanieWytovich/2008/02/the_rhythm_of_melancholy_eyes.html

"Bernice deftly amputated the other braid, paused for an instant, and then flitted swiftly and silently back to her own room."

"She saw two of the girls exchange glances; noticed Marjorie's mouth curved in attenuated mockery- and that Warren's eyes were suddenly very cold."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/KaitlinMonier/2008/02/bernices_bad_bob.html

"...that this hair, this wonderful hair of hers, was going--she would never again feel its long voluptuous pull as it hung in a dark-brown glory down her back."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/ChelseaOliver/2008/02/el_150_saturday_december_29th.html

"She was passing Warren's house now, and on the impulse she set down her baggage, and swinging the braids like pieces of rope flung them at the wooden porch, where they landed with a slight thud. 'Huh!' she giggled wildy. 'Scalp the selfish thing!' Then picking up her suitcase she set off at a half-run down the moonlit street."

"Now that was gone and she was--well, frightfully mediocre--not stagy; only ridiculous, like a Greenwich Villager who had left her spectacles at home."

http://blogs.setonhhttp://blogs.setonhill.edu/JulianaCox/2008/02/back_to_where_she_started.html

Hey guys, sorry but I do not think the above link works. So let me try this again.

"Now that was gone and she was--well, frightfully mediocre--not stagy; only ridiculous, like a Greenwich Villager who had left her spectacles at home."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JulianaCox/2008/02/back_to_where_she_started.html

"Yet how bored they both looked, and how wearily Ethel regarded Jim sometimes, as if she wondered why she had trained the vines of her affection on such a wind-shaken poplar." (fitzgerald)

"The main function of the balcony was critical. It occasionally showed grudging admiration, but never approval, for it is well known among ladies over thirty-five that when the younger set dance in the summer-time it is with the very worst intentions in the world, and if they are not bombarded with stony eyes stray couples will dance weird barbaric interludes in the corners, and the more popular, more dangerous, girls will sometimes be kissed in the parked limousines of unsuspecting dowagers."

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JessieFarine/2008/02/children_in_heat_you_cant_cont.html

"Bernice deftly amputated the other braid, paused for an instant, and then flitted swiftly and silently back to her own room."http://blogs.setonhill.edu/TheresaConley/2008/02/the_amputated_braid_1.html

"Bernice stood on the curb and looked at the sign, Sevier Barber-Shop. It was a guillotine indeed, and the hangman was the first barber, who, attired in a white coat and smoking a cigarette, leaned nonchalantly against the first chair. He must have heard of her; he must have been waiting all week, smoking eternal cigarettes beside that portentous, too-often-mentioned first chair. Would they blindfold her? No, but they would tie a white cloth round her neck lest any of her blood--nonsense--hair--should get on her clothes (Fitzgerald 4-53). "

PS: I will remember to PUBLISH my blogs after I write them.....from now on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my response to Erica's comment.

"Bernice felt a vague pain that she was not at present engaged in being popular. She did not know that had it not been for Marjorie's campaigning she would have danced the entire evening with one man; but she knew that even in Eau Claire other girls will less position and less pulchritude were given a much bigger rush. She attributed this to something subtly unscrupulous in those girls. It had never worried her, and if it had her mother would have assured her that the other girls cheapened themselves and that men really respected girls like Bernice."

"You got an awfully kissable mouth," he began quietly