BethanyBouchard

Fitzgerald, ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' (online) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"For a second she was near breaking down, and then the picture before her swam mechanically into her vision--Marjorie's mouth curling in a faint ironic smile as if to say:
'Give up and get down! You tried to buck me and I called your bluff. You see you haven't got a prayer.''

By reading Fitzgerald's story about Bernice, I can see that today's social standards are not much different than what they were sixty years ago. There were still the popular kids and the kids who didn't quite fit into that group; there were still peer pressures and the need to feel accepted by the highest social groups. Marjorie and Bernice were from two different social groups. Though they were both in the same class financially, Bernice was socially awkward, while Marjorie was a social butterfly, or a "gardenia," as deemed in the story. Bernice did everything Marjorie told her to in order to fit in with her cousin and her friends. When her popularity rose above that of Marjorie's, Marjorie got jealous and decided to challenge it, thus Bernice's ascension to the barber's chair and her bobbed hair. In today's society, we see the same kinds of things happening in groups of young people and adolescents. We still feel the need to be accepted by our peers, and some of us, like Bernice, will go to any lengths to make it to the top. Sometimes it's not as simple as getting a haircut though. Nowadays it can be something much more serious, maybe involving drugs, alchohol and other self-harming behavior. I think it is interesting how we can relate things in literature written over fifty years ago to things that are happening today; that's part of what makes it timeless. When we can relate to things we read, it speaks volumes to us, and Fitzgerald's Bernice Bobs Her Hair definitely spoke to me.