Change
Change. It is
something a lot of people don't want to go through in life, while others love
change and no matter what change it is, it helps them love life. Change can be
a good thing like a change in your relationship status when you go from single,
to in a relationship. Change can be a bad thing like losing a family member who
you were always close to. All in all though, change is something we all need to
go through to experience life the way it is supposed to be experienced, even
though it may sometimes disappoint you.
In the
story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the main
character Bernice changes unexpectedly. At the beginning of the story, she is a
girl that no one really wants to be around and pretty much no one cuts in on
her unless they are bribed to. Boring is a pretty spot on word to describe her.
Marjorie, Bernice's cousin, had a friend named Warren who she would always
bribe him into dancing with Bernice and this is what he thought of her, she was no fun
on a party. Every Saturday night he danced a long arduous duty dance with her
to please Marjorie, but he had never been anything but bored in her company. Even Marjorie didn't have nice
things to say, "Well," said Marjorie, "no girl can
permanently bolster up a lame-duck visitor, because these days it's every girl
for herself. I've even tried to drop her hints about clothes and things, and
she's been furious--given me the funniest looks. She's sensitive enough to know
she's not getting away with much, but I'll bet she consoles herself by thinking
that she's very virtuous and that I'm too gay and fickle and will come to a bad
end. All unpopular girls think that way. Sour grapes! Sarah Hopkins refers to
Genevieve and Roberta and me as gardenia girls! I'll bet she'd give ten years
of her life and her European education to be a gardenia girl and have three or
four men in love with her and be cut in on every few feet at dances." At the end of the book though,
you barely think that Bernice is the same person.
With the help of her
cousin Marjorie, Bernice is the most popular girl in town, even though she
doesn't actually live there. Everything changes about her; her attitude, her
personality, her everything. All the boys want her. While she used to have no
one cutting in on her, now even the best of the boys, G. Reece Stoddard, is
cutting in and having a swell time. This is how popular she truly is, the man relieved proved to be none other than G.
Reece Stoddard himself. And G. Reece seemed not at all jubilant at being
relieved. Next time Bernice danced near, Warren regarded her intently. Yes, she
was pretty, distinctly pretty; and to-night her face seemed really vivacious.
She had that look that no woman, however histrionically proficient, can
successfully counterfeit--she looked as if she were having a good time.
Change has really
been helping her, it turned her from a boring person to the most wanted girl in
town. All the change is getting her so much attention, she decides to change
one last thing; her hair. She goes right down to the barber shop and says she wants
to get it bobbed, the barber is partially confused, but he bobs it anyways.
This change though, wasn't a good change. None of the boys wanted her anymore
and even her own aunt didn't want to be with her. She didn't even want to be
with her anymore and this is what she thought,
Her hair was not curly, and now it lay in lank lifeless blocks on both sides of
her suddenly pale face. It was ugly as sin--she had known it would be ugly as
sin. Her face's chief charm had been a Madonna-like simplicity. Now that was
gone and she was--well, frightfully mediocre--not stagy; only ridiculous, like
a Greenwich Villager who had left her spectacles at home.
Throughout the story
she didn't just change her looks, she also changed her confidence. At the
beginning she was a wimpy, little, helpless girl, who didn't have her own
opinion on anything. At the end of the story though, she is confident and only
makes her own decision and doesn't really listen to anyone else. She decides
that she needs to get her revenge so this is what she does to Marjorie,
She acted swiftly. 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 that the sleeper would feel no
pull, she reached down with the shears and severed it. With the pigtail in her
hand she held her breath. Marjorie had muttered something in her sleep. Bernice
deftly amputated the other braid, paused for an instant, and then flitted
swiftly and silently back to her own room. With the new Bernice though
she doesn't stop there, as she is walking down the street she passes Warren's
house where she was swinging the braids like
pieces of rope and flung them at the wooden porch where they landed with a thud.
I would say from the beginning to the end, her confidence is the thing that
changed the most.
So, although change
is a thing that can bring you popularity, friends, attention, and boys, change
can also bring you sadness, people bullying you, bad attention, and people
talking about you behind your back. People who have a strong heart though,
always will love change.
