Bernice Bobs Her Hair

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a short story by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story demonstrates Fitzgerald’s interest in the shifting social trends of the 1920s American Jazz Age, in which he and his wife, Zelda, figured prominently. While drawing on Modernist concerns and the literary tradition of makeover stories, Fitzgerald particularly highlights themes of Shifting Feminine Identity in the Early 20th Century, Downfall Through the Temptation of Social Acceptance, and Detachment in Modern Relationships. Based on advice Fitzgerald gave in a 1915 letter to his younger sister, the story debuted in the May 1920 edition of the Saturday Evening Post.

This guide refers to the edition in F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels & Stories 1920-1922, published in 2000 and reprinted online by the Library of America.

Content Warning: The source material depicts racial stereotyping of Indigenous peoples.

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” utilizes a third-person omniscient narrator who provides external descriptions of various character actions as well as interior glimpses of Bernice, Marjorie Harvey, and Warren McIntyre. The titular character, Bernice, is visiting her cousin, Marjorie, in an unnamed—likely Midwestern—city. Bernice is from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and cannot understand why she is struggling socially, especially in contrast to Marjorie, who has her pick of suitors, including her neighbor, Warren. The story is told chronologically across six parts.

The first section begins with a crowd of guests and servants at a country club summer dance. The dancing couples are observed by “middle-aged ladies with sharp eyes and icy hearts” on the balcony above and by gentleman “stags” standing along the wall (356). Among these is Warren, who laments his struggle to maintain Marjorie’s affections, even more so when Marjorie asks Warren to dance with Bernice. Warren obliges, releasing young Otis Ormonde, who openly complains about how long he has been dancing with Bernice. Afterward, while sitting on the veranda, Warren tries out a flirtatious line on Bernice, though he finds her boring and awkward.

After the dance, Bernice and Marjorie return to Marjorie’s family home. Bernice overhears Marjorie complaining to her mother about the burden of Bernice’s unpopularity and lack of social artistry. Marjorie states that women like her mother and Bernice cling to an old sense of moral propriety, which Marjorie sees as outdated and naïve.

The next morning, Bernice reveals that she heard Marjorie and threatens to leave, hoping Marjorie will apologize and ask her to stay. Marjorie shows no sympathy for Bernice’s hurt feelings, instead standing by her upfront honesty. After they discuss shifting ideals of morality and femininity, Bernice asks Marjorie to help her gain popularity. Marjorie outlines several pieces of advice and suggests Bernice get a bob haircut.

During the next evening of dinner and dancing, Bernice wears a red dress and tries out new methods of social charm, suggested by Marjorie. At dinner, she successfully enchants Charley Paulson and G. Reece Stoddard with a teasing suggestion that they could spectate while she gets her hair bobbed. Warren notices but is initially dismissive of the attention Bernice receives, even when she becomes a popular dance partner. That night, Marjorie acknowledges Bernice’s success, and Bernice falls asleep to self-satisfied reflections.

Over the next week, Bernice is socially successful, except for offending Draycott Deyo, who is studying to go into ministry and finds her comments about bathing habits immoral. Most notably, Warren has started courting Bernice, though his motives are somewhat ambiguous. Marjorie laughs off Warren’s change in attention at first, but after a few days, she decides to reclaim him and punish Bernice for stealing “Marjorie’s property” (374). At a bridge party, Marjorie derisively tells the group that Bernice was never serious about her intention to bob her hair. When the group challenges Bernice to see it through, she feels she has no choice. They go as a group to a barber shop. Bernice’s hair is shorn, and the result is completely unflattering. Bernice tries to maintain her dignity while Marjorie and Warren, who have been silent throughout this ordeal, regard her with cold eyes.

Bernice is even more certain that her haircut was a mistake when she faces her aunt and uncle’s astonished concern. She is expected to attend a dance the next day held in her and Marjorie’s honor. However, the host, Mrs. Deyo, disapproves of bobbed hair as a moral failing of modern youth. Marjorie, while braiding her own still long and lovely hair, apologizes to Bernice for Mrs. Deyo’s potential condemnation. Bernice tells her it’s all right, but as she sits and thinks, “something snap[s] within” her (380). That night, Bernice sneaks into Marjorie’s room and cuts off her braids while she sleeps. She takes her packed bags, throws Marjorie’s braids onto Warren’s front porch, and departs.