"What's a little cheap popularity?"Fitzgerald, ''Bernice Bobs Her Hair'' (online) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)Mrs. Harvey sounded annoyed.
"It's everything when you're eighteen," said Marjorie emphatically.
A good summation of the crisis Bernice struggles with in Fitzgerald's story, this exlamation made by Marjorie still rings true in our society today. Although, I suppose the struggles of popularity begin much earlier than the age of 18 nowadays, I feel that readers of this story, especially young girls, can learn from Bernice's actions. Bernice wasted a lot of time and energy trying to achieve popularity only to realize in the end the fruitless nature of her efforts. Fitzgerald's message emulates the words of Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet:
This above all else: To thine own self be true.