Flapper

The Evolution of Women in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Short Fiction

By: Elodie Belrose

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Elodie Belrose deconstructs conventional understandings of the flapper prototype through an astute critique of Fitzgerald's short stories "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", "Diamond as Big as the Ritz", "Winter Dreams", "The Ice Palace", and many other tales of the Jazz Age. Belrose also offers one of the best concise historical accounts on the rise of the flapper's prominence in 1920's America. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short fiction offers a contrasting, untold narrative of the flapper’s impact on American society when compared to his novels. The flapper was not the catalyst for a grand American sexual revolution, but rather one of many steps on the staircase to female equality. Fitzgerald wrote of a new woman who smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, bobbed her hair, and scantily dressed herself in calf-length skirts. Rather than remain within her comforts, she preferred to brave the mysteries of the unknown. She was playful, free loving, and sexually aware. She was the flapper.