"Berenice Bobs Her Hair" by F Scott Fitzgerald

Reading assignment for the winter holidays ."Berenice Bobs Her Hair" by F Scott Fitzgerald  (complete text in e-caths) Movie watching assignment : "The Great Gatsby" based on the  novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read complement material on the Jazz Age , in our blog`s past posts.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair" was Fitzgerald's fourth Saturday Evening Post story (1 May 1920) and provided the subject for the dust-jacket illustration when it was collected in Flappers and Philosophers. It occupies an important position in the Fitzgerald canon as a witty early treatment of a characteristic subject that he would later examine more seriously: the competition for social success and the determination with which his characters-- especially the young women--engage in it. The story was based on a detailed memo Fitzgerald wrote to his younger sister, Annabel, advising her how to achieve popularity with boys: "Cultivate deliberate physical grace."  Fitzgerald had some difficulty bringing "Bernice" to salable form; he cut some three thousand words and rewrote to "inject a snappy climax. "

www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/bernice/