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Bernice Bobs Her Hair

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"Bernice Bobs Her Hair"
Short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The cover of The Saturday Evening Post (May 1, 1920) containing "Bernice Bobs Her Hair". The issue marked the first time Fitzgerald's name appeared on the cover.
Text available at Wikisource
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Short story
Publication
Published inThe Saturday Evening Post
Flappers and Philosophers
Publication typeMagazine
Short Story Collection
Media typePrint
Publication dateMay 1, 1920[1]
(as short story)
September 10, 1920
(in collection)

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.[1] It was first published in May 1920 in The Saturday Evening Post.[2][3] It was Fitzgerald's first short story to achieve national prominence.[4] The original publication featured interior illustrations by May Wilson Preston.[5] The work later appeared in the September 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers published by Charles Scribner's Sons.[6][7]

Fitzgerald's short story follows the plight of a mixed-race Native American girl named Bernice from rural Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who visits her beautiful and sophisticated white cousin Marjorie in the city, presumably Saint Paul, Minnesota.[8] In an attempt to be popular, Bernice announces she will bob her hair, but this announcement leads to unforeseen consequences.[8]

Several decades after its publication, critic Orville Prescott of The New York Times hailed Fitzgerald's short story in 1951 as a landmark in American literature "that set social standards for a generation of young Americans, that revealed secrets of popularity and gave wonderful examples of what to say at a dinner table or on the dance floor."[9]

Background

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In 1915, a nineteen-year-old Fitzgerald attended Princeton University, and he wrote many voluminous letters to his fourteen-year-old sister Annabel Fitzgerald.[3][10] As Annabel wished to make herself more socially desirable, he "attempted to refine her social skills, providing detailed instructions on popularity and improving her image."[3][10]

Fitzgerald's 10-page-long letter to a disconsolate Annabel gave "advice on conversation, poise, carriage, dancing, expression, dress, and personality."[10] Four years later, Fitzgerald used this letter for the basis of his 1919 story draft.[10] The original draft of the story was much longer, but Fitzgerald cut nearly 3,000 words and altered the ending to make the story more attractive to slick magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.

Fitzgerald named the title character Bernice as a reference to Berenice II of Egypt.[11] According to legend, Berenice sacrificed her most beloved possession—her tresses—to ensure victory in warfare.[11] For this act, the gods bestowed upon her a great honor: they placed her tresses in the heavens as the constellation Coma Berenices.[11]

Summary

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"Bernice Bobs Her Hair" illustrations by artist May Wilson Preston, May 1920.
Bernice overhears Marjorie and Marjorie's Mother Gossiping About Her
"Well," said Marjorie, "No girl can permanently bolster up a lame-duck visitor, because these days it's every girl for herself."
Bernice Tells the Barber to Bob Her Hair
"My hair—bob it!"

Bernice, a purportedly mixed-race[a] girl from rural Eau Claire, Wisconsin, visits her beautiful and sophisticated cousin Marjorie Harvey for the month of August. At the Saturday-night dances, none of the handsome boys wish to dance with or speak to Bernice, and Marjorie feels Bernice is a drag on her social life.[12]

One evening Bernice overhears a hurtful conversation between Marjorie and Marjorie's mother, in which Marjorie comments that Bernice is socially hopeless.[12] She ascribes Bernice's social awkwardness and conversational reticence to Bernice's supposed Native American[a] ancestry.[13] "I think it's that crazy Indian blood in Bernice," remarks Marjorie. "Maybe she's a reversion to type. Indian women all just sat round and never said anything."[13]

The next morning at breakfast, a distraught Bernice threatens to leave town, but when Marjorie is unfazed by her threats, Bernice relents.[14] She reluctantly agrees to let Marjorie turn her into a society girl. Marjorie teaches Bernice how to hold interesting conversations, how to flirt with unattractive boys to make herself seem more desirable, and how to dance. At the next party, Bernice's best line is teasing the boys with the idea that she will soon bob her hair, and they will get to watch.[15]

With her new coquettish demeanor, Bernice becomes popular with the local boys, especially Warren McIntyre who lives across the street. Warren has been in love with Marjorie since childhood, but she consistently neglects him. When it becomes clear Warren has shifted his romantic attentions to Bernice, a vindictive Marjorie sets about publicly humiliating Bernice by tricking her into going through with bobbing her hair.[15]

"Do you think I ought to bob my hair, Mr. Charley Paulson?"

Charley looked up in surprise.

"Why?"

"Because I'm considering it. It's such a sure and easy way of attracting attention."

— F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"[15]

Marjorie tells various boys Bernice never intended to bob her hair - it was merely a ploy to attract their attention. To prove Marjorie wrong, Bernice consents to be taken to a barbershop by Warren, Marjorie, and a coterie of admirers. However, after the barber bobs Bernice's hair, the boys abruptly lose interest, and Bernice realizes Marjorie tricked her.[15]

Marjorie's mother points out that Bernice's flapper haircut will provoke a scandal at an upcoming party held in her and Marjorie's honor. Deciding it would be best to leave town before the party the next day, Bernice packs her trunk in the middle of the night and plans to leave on the next train after midnight.[15]

Before Bernice leaves, she writes her aunt a note explaining where she went, then sneaks into Marjorie's room and shears off her sleeping cousin's two luxurious braids.[15] Exiting the Harvey house, Bernice leaves with her luggage and Marjorie's braids. As Bernice proceeds to the train station, she notices Warren's house across the street. Realizing she was still holding the braids, Bernice tosses them onto his front porch and with a laugh, shouts, "Should have scalped[a] the selfish thing!" [15] Picking up her luggage, Bernice runs down the moonlit street to the train station.[15]

Adaptations

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A picture of Julie Harris with long hair
Shelley Duvall in the 1976 adaptation of "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"
Julie Harris starred in a 1951 television adaption. Shelley Duvall starred in a later 1976 adaptation.

"Bernice" has been adapted twice for television.[7] In 1951, CBS adapted the story for a Starlight Theatre episode starring 26-year-old Julie Harris as Bernice, Mary Sinclair as Marjorie and Jerry Paris as Otis.[7] Anita Loos appeared in a cameo as herself.

In 1976, Joan Micklin Silver directed a TV production created for the PBS series The American Short Story.[7] It starred Shelley Duvall as Bernice, Veronica Cartwright as Marjorie, and Bud Cort as Warren.[7] Draycott Deyo was played by Patrick Reynolds (then using the stage name Patrick Byrne) and Marjorie's mother was played by Polly Holliday.[7]

The story was later converted into a one-act play by D. D. Brooke for The Dramatic Publishing Company.[7] It was adapted into a 2015 musical by Adam Gwon and Julia Jordan.[16] The Irish pop group The Divine Comedy turned the story into a song on their 1993 album Liberation.

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c Most scholars "consider the story's ending predominantly in terms of Bernice's supposed Native American ancestry. This analysis is rooted in an early scene in the story in which Marjorie suggests that the reason for Bernice's unpopularity is 'that crazy Indian blood' that explains her submissive nature.[8]

Citations

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  1. ^ a b Fitzgerald 1920.
  2. ^ Fitzgerald 1920, pp. 14–15, 159, 163.
  3. ^ a b c Bruccoli 2002, pp. 63, 107–108.
  4. ^ Tate 2007, p. 137.
  5. ^ Fitzgerald 1920, p. 14.
  6. ^ Tredell 2011, p. 175.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Hischak 2012, p. 23.
  8. ^ a b c Notea 2018, p. 20.
  9. ^ Prescott 1951.
  10. ^ a b c d Tate 2007, p. 298.
  11. ^ a b c McDonough 2007, pp. 226–229.
  12. ^ a b Fitzgerald 1920, pp. 14–15.
  13. ^ a b Fitzgerald 1920, p. 15.
  14. ^ Fitzgerald 1920, p. 159.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Fitzgerald 1920, p. 163.
  16. ^ Levitt 2015.

Bibliography

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