-
Essay / Bernice Cuts Her Hair - 984
In the short story "Bernice Cuts Her Hair" by Scott Fitzgerald, Bernice is pressured to be like others and conform to society's changing mores. Peer pressure from her cousin, Marjorie, and society causes Bernice to become insecure and unsure of herself. The stress of peer pressure is why Bernice trades her important moral choices for those of an ever-changing society. This provides a better understanding of peer pressure as a negative and positive tool. Marjorie pressures Bernice to change her appearance, behavior, and speech so that she can become more "popular". Therefore, peer pressure causes Bernice to cut her hair, an action that was not viewed positively in the early 1920s. Peer pressure is the tool Marjorie uses to change Bernice's behavior in order to increase its popularity and can be seen as a positive force or a negative force. Peer pressure can be seen as a positive force because it brings Bernice out of her shell and allows her to have more confidence in herself. Before the use of peer pressure, Bernice was considered boring: “…Cousin Bernice was kind of dope. She was pretty, with dark hair and bright colors, but she was no fun at a party. »(211). Although Bernice seems stuck to her usual routine of talking about cars, the weather, and her hometown with boys, she finds that people treat Marjorie very differently from her. It's obvious that Marjorie despises the way Bernice acts and thinks Beatrice is boring: "You little weirdo...all these horrible inefficiencies that pass for feminine qualities." She says this because some women at that time "were confused and frustrated by the conflict between traditional ideas about a woman's place and the middle of the paper...from boring tendencies to almost explicit and unfiltered. Marjorie also uses pressure of her peers to change the way Bernice views her self-image by causing Bernice to change her style from rural comfort to urban fashion, which makes Bernice more charming even though she still has low self-esteem. beginning of story Bernice has low self-esteem and Marjorie convinces Bernice that she needs to change her appearance so that boys find her more attractive and charming "...girls who were judged pretty by constructed social norms were attractive to boys and. had a much greater probability of being popular” (Adler, 50). One of the things Marjorie suggests Beatrice change is her eyebrows, “for example, you never take care of your eyebrows, they're black and shiny, but. leaving them in disorder, they are a stain” (Negri,218).