Bernice Bob Her Hair

Bernice Bobs Her Hair is a short story portraying the self-conflict between being who you want to be and what society expects you to become. The main character, Bernice, is the epitome of the “respectable” woman that existed from the Victorian era. The women during that time wore conservative clothing that showed no amount of skin while buns held their hair high to show restraint and their mysterious poise, beauty, and grace (page 4, chapter 2, paragraph 2, line 6-7). During the industrial revolution, the stage of rebelling against all normality amongst the “cult of true womanhood” began and women engaged in promiscuous “dishonorable” ways as a type of rebellion to signify total independence from the male and their role as the perfect little homemaker.
Bernice, however, is in conflict with herself when coming across this culture clash of new woman versus old woman. Being raised to restrict displaying “masculine” and “harlot” features when in public- though they were known by men through inferences in conversation, but never publicly seen (page 4, chapter 2, paragraph 2, line 6-7)-Bernice found herself battling her subconscious desires in whether she wanted to accept the change of the idolized woman, or revert back into the polite quiet wife that seldom says or does anything. Her cousin, Marjorie, is the main character that sends Bernice into considering that her ways of living are out of style. Throughout the story, Marjorie is the main person that encourages Bernice to change her way of style and dress to fit into the new age of the “new woman” and insists this way of living is what will make her popular with the men- since a woman’s reputation is based on how many men cut in and dance with her in a single evening (page 3, paragraph 11, line 1). Being lead into thinking that she was out of style and not “popular” enough to fit in, she finds herself taking her cousin’s advice and embracing the life of a flapper. Although Bernice engages in flapper activity, she finds herself conflict with herself against the new her and the old. In one section, (page 11, chapter 4, line 8), Bernice asks Charley Paulson, a man who she thinks knows everything on women, whether or not she should bob her hair to complete her flapper look. To bob one’s hair is the ultimate deed a person could do to symbolize complete rebellion. Long hair shows beauty and grace, and short hair signifies masculinity and indifference. This constant insecurity and unsure attitude towards cutting her hair shows that Bernice is considering her new livelihood, but has yet to fully embrace it all. Her insecurity ends when she decides to finally bob her hair and show everyone who doubted her that she could be the new woman. Though she initially received negative feedback, she accepted her new womanhood and found herself embracing it fully when she decided to dress in a style that suited her current lifestyle. (Page 20, paragraph 1, line3-6). Her new way of life also came into light when she decided to get even with her cousin, which coaxed and manipulated her from the very beginning, by cutting off her two braids and making her hair into a bob. Since flappers are free and independent, Bernice found herself letting lose of all her restraints to find her innermost self as the new woman; one her cousin was even too afraid to become