Bernice Bobs Her Hair

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing is full of allusions, or references to other figures or works. These moments demonstrate his education and create associated meanings for the readers.

First, as part of establishing the upper-class society dance, he suggests the matrons give their “deductions […] such as the one which states that every young man with a large income leads the life of a hunted partridge” (356). This is an allusion to, and humorous rephrasing of, the opening line of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” With that novel in mind, Fitzgerald suggests how the traditional upper-class mindset is still present but starting to be resisted in his Jazz Age.

Two other literary allusions are more direct. First, when Marjorie and Bernice are discussing the right ways to treat one another, Bernice asks, “Don’t you think common kindness—” and Marjorie interjects, “Oh, please don’t quote ‘Little Women’!” (365). Second, when Bernice is borrowing Marjorie’s clever conversation topics, she notes that “Marjorie had culled this from Oscar Wilde” (370). Together, these allusions help clarify the differences between Bernice’s and Marjorie’s mindsets.