“Bernice Bobs her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story that shows us exactly how societal standards or expectations can and will be detrimental to the self. Mitigating one’s own personality and self, especially when somebody strives to meet the expectations of the masses or of the group as a whole, means that a person sacrifices who they are. This is easy to do for a short moment in time or for a split second, but what Fitzgerald attempts to demonstrate through the narrative of “Bernice” allows us to see how a continued pattern of assimilation or jumping through hoops can harm a person.
Her hair serves as a representation of her identity, and when she chooses to finally give in to the pressure around her and change it, she loses a part of herself.
In the case of Bernice, she finally snaps when she runs away and cuts the hair of Marjorie. She finds her breaking point and it shows in a big way because she abandons her life and everything that she knows in favor of sending a message to Marjorie and any alternative to the sham of a life Bernice has been living...we know that she will take literally any other option as she leaves town without any real plan of action. However, this desperation does not manifest itself immediately, and instead creeps in over the course of a long string of events that Bernice deals with, finally leaving her mentally and physically exhausted.
What catalyzes Bernice’s downward spiral is her nonconformity to the rest of the high society setting, and other characters reacting towards her distastefully as a result. Bernice is constantly compared to Marjorie, who serves as a counterpart proficient in the practices that both young women are expected to adhere to. Men aren’t just attracted to physical beauty in the story. Bernice is never talked about as unattractive: “As much as Warren worshipped Marjorie, he has to admit that Cousin Bernice was sorts dopeless.” (Fitzgerald 1) We know that physically she meets all of others’ expectations of her. However, where she falters is her social capability, with a lack of proficiency in being witty and clever, flirting with many men and being the object of attention that she is supposed to be. She’s not able to meet the standard of beauty, and because of this other characters talk behind her back about her flaws and shortcomings.
Bernice’s personality, while perhaps acceptable by past standards of beauty and femininity, proves to be undesirable in the context of “Bernice Bobs her Hair” because of the new idea of femininity that the characters viewed as attractive. While the social scene had shifted so as to accept more of an individualistic female, people who did not conform to this standard were left behind in some sense. Bernice is cast aside, ignored, and discarded in favor of the new idea of beauty, Marjorie. Even Marjorie believes it and perpetuates it: “‘The womanly woman!’ continued Marjorie. ‘Her whole early life is occupied in whining criticisms of girls like me who really do have a good time.’” (Fitzgerald 5) In this way Bernice serves as a representation for the ideologies and standards of the past, falling victim to a societal progressivism that continued to advance the way one “should” behave.
These expectations are unreachable for Bernice, who finds herself unable to adapt or change who she is in order to meet them. When Bernice bobs her hair, she finally decides to do so as a radical move that’s more of a statement than anything else. Her new haircut is wildly popular and completely shocks anybody who sees it for the first time. At this point, people hadn’t fully embraced the bobbed look, and so Bernice’s choice to bob her hair given all of her previous insecurities and shortcomings in the story seems even more profound and significant. This appears to be a sign that Bernice embracing the new idea of femininity and casting aside her past inability to change.
However, this is simply a representation of Bernice’s identity. She has abandoned what makes up who she is in favor of what others desire her to be. Bernice does end up adhering to the standards constructed for her by those in her life, but in the process of doing so she fundamentally alters her own physical appearance to become something that she is not. She clips Marjorie’s braids and runs away as a final protest. “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 the sleeper would feel no pull, she reached down with the shears and severed it.” (Fitzgerald 11) Fitzgerald uses this to show us a testament to the suffering Bernice has experienced, and to show the actual toll that adherence exacts on somebody. Bernice learns the hard way that in order to become who that everybody expects you to be, one must sacrifice what makes you, you.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Bernice Bobs Her Hair. Kessinger Publishing, 2004.
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