The Danger Of Playing The Spor: The 1920 & # 8217 ; s And Dorothy Parker & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; Big Blonde & # 8221 ; t Essay, Research Paper

The Danger of Playing the Sport: The 1920? s and Dorothy Parker? s? Large Blonde. ?

The 1920? s and early 1930? s, besides called the Jazz Age, was a clip for merriment and demoing off. Dancing, traveling to dinner parties, and imbibing and smoke with friends became the high spot of the times. The economical universe had come to the head, puting great importance on trade goods. Cars, jewellery, and an attractive spouse were regarded as necessities. New assuring callings became available to work forces, such as attorneies and bankers. The typical? man of affairs? image had emerged, which is still valued today, about sixty old ages subsequently.

However, adult females? s economic chances remained limited, so they were forced to play the game: to happen a adult male who would supply these much wanted ownerships and hopefully acquire married and have a household. Styles drastically changed. Gone were the yearss of the? antique miss? and now was the clip of the glamourous and sophisticated flapper. Womans were allowing their hair down, showing their gender with newfound freedom. The yearss had come where they could eventually be seen someplace else besides the place, and that topographic point had become on the arm of a adult male, particularly for societal assemblages. Marriage, money, and felicity were the new adult female? s pursuit, and in most of their eyes the lone reply was the opposite sex ( Pettit 50 ) .

These expected and equivocal gender functions, peculiarly the adult females? s function, of the clip are interesting to analyze because they show the displacement that had taken topographic point from the Victorian epoch, and can outdo be seen in the Hagiographas of the 1920? s and 30? s discourse. Female authors of that clip best portray the displacement that had taken topographic point from the? old individualities? of the Victorian manner of believing to the? new individualities? of the speakeasies manner of thought. One of the most good known authors for these times is Dorothy Parker, a sarcastic and witty poet and author besides celebrated for her place at the Algonquin Round tabular array ( Acocella 76 ) . Almost all of her verse forms and short narratives deal with the relationship between work forces and adult females and the consequence that the Jazz Age had on them, peculiarly the adult females in the state of affairs. Acocella explains, ? We see them at the speakeasy, drunkenly kicking to their friends about disregard, treachery? ( 80 ) . The best portraiture of the socially constructed gender functions and the hopelessness of male-female dealingss of the times is seen in Parker? s most celebrated short narrative, ? Big Blonde? , which won the O. Henry Prize in 1929 ( Acocella 76 ) .

Because Parker? s ain life reflected that of the supporter, Hazel Morse, of? Big Blonde, ? most recent critics such as Joan Acocella, Nina Miller, and Brendan Gill among many others have taken a biographical attack in analysing this narrative. However, it is besides of import to look at the historical period and the consequence that the displacement had made on gender functions, specifically feminine, which would explicate the similarities between Parker and the character of Hazel Morse. Rhonda Pettit attacks? Big Blonde? in this manner by comparing two female authors, including Parker and Loos, in their similar portraiture of the stuff miss in the Jazz Age. Cultural/historical unfavorable judgment has been another manner to near Parker? s narrative, by analyzing non merely the clip period the narrative was written, but besides the patterns of the society in that clip period. Ellen Lansky takes this attack, uniting it with gender surveies, and examines the effects of intoxicant, which had become the most popular signifier of societal interaction, on work forces and adult females and their relationships. Another cultural critic, Amelia Simpson, analyzes? Big Blonde? through the black female? s function in the narrative.

Each attack highlights some important facet of Parker? s? Big Blonde ; ? nevertheless, all of these attacks together serve to efficaciously analyse Parker? s? Big Blonde. ? I combined the biographical with the historical/cultural/feminist positions in my ain analysis of the narrative and found that the female of the 1920? s on into the 1930? s had been placed into an equivocal and contradictory socially constructed function, which resulted in harmful behaviours and attitudes. And because Parker was really much a portion of the popular civilization of the Jazz Age, she herself is an illustration of the adult female playing the good? athletics? , tantrum to the outlooks of society.

The? good athletics? was the adult female who accompanied a adult male on his societal excursions, which about ever included imbibing intoxicant, express joying at his every gag, and ne’er of all time demoing any sort of hapless or cockamamie emotion. Hazel Morse, the chief character of? Big Blonde? who had one time been a dilutant, younger, bosomy blonde working as a frock theoretical account, was now in her in-between mid-thirtiess playing the? good athletics? function to travel rapidly and happen a adult male whom she could settle down with.

? Work force liked her, and she took it for granted that the liking of many work forces was a desirable thing. Popularity seemed to her to be worth all the work that had to be put into its accomplishment. Work force liked you because you were fun, and when they liked you they took you out, and at that place you were. So, and successfully, she was merriment. She was a good athletics. Men liked a good athletics? ( Gill 187 ) .

This was the function of the female of the Jazz Age. Hazel Morse shortly finds herself a hubby, Herbie, in the societal scene. They get married and halt traveling out like they used to when they foremost met. However, she becomes excessively comfy after the exhilaration of the matrimony wears down. Herbie no longer wants to remain at place watching her call at the sympathetic things, ? kidnapped babes, abandoned married womans, unemployed work forces? ( 189 ) , that adult females cry about. He wants the old Hazel dorsum who would express joy at his gags, throw back a drink, and bury about all the concerns in life. Hazel tries to salvage the matrimony by returning to the patterns of the good old yearss, and win back Herbie? s love. As Lansky suggests Hazel had fallen into, ? alcohol addiction and the? female problems? that they encounter as they try to negociate a life for themselves in a civilization that asks them, as heterosexual adult females, to subordinate their organic structures, desires, and aspirations to their male spouses? ( 212 ) .

This cultural attack serves as a great manner of analysing? Big Blonde? because it portrays the new function for the adult female of the Jazz Age. Lansky besides shows how intoxicant had become a societal job for both adult females and work forces of that clip, and so how the job perpetuates itself. Men expected the adult females to function as their confederate in imbibing and partying, but at the same clip act like a adult female with self-respect and regard, which was barely of all time met under the influence of intoxicant ( 221 ) . So the adult females find themselves in contradictory functions, one in which they must back up their adult male in his imbibing and merriment ( the new? anything goes? adult female ) , and in another by remaining responsible but subservient to their adult male ( the antique good miss ) . If these outlooks were non met so the adult female would be served a penalty by losing the matrimony and being left entirely ( 213 ) . This is where Hazel Morse finds herself. Herbie leaves her finally because they can non interrupt out of their constructed imbibing functions, and she is left one time once more as a individual older adult female expected to play the? good athletics? in order to maintain the adult male.

Lansky so presents the 2nd female problem, the panoptic regard and the adult female alky. This is when the adult female becomes a captive, and ne’er sees the inspector whom is ever maintaining ticker over her in the Panopticon. The inspector can be anybody from the adult male, to other adult females, to the reader in a narrative such as? Big Blonde. ? She ( the captive ) becomes accustomed to this relationship and so internalizes the panoptic regard, foremost by credence and so by really penalizing herself ( 217 ) . As Lansky points out, ? Hazel Morse must experience angered about the fact that her matrimony, with its promises of economic and emotional security, practically dissolves nightlong, but a good athletics does non demo her fury. She is caught up in a fierce, dual panoptic regard, one that disciplines alcohol addiction and one that disciplines adult females, sometimes consecutive, sometimes at the same time. In this state of affairs she can non exhibit appropriate? female? behaviours, and she is punished by all of the inspectors? ( 222 ) .

This leads to the 3rd female problem of alcohol addiction and the madwoman, which is a term that emerged out of Charlotte Bronte? s Jane Eyre. The women’s rightists Susan Gilbert and Susan Gubar used this term to explicate a societal building that resulted in force and fury from the adult female who was stuck in the Panopticon ( 223 ) . Hazel Morse is clearly a madwoman by the terminal of the narrative where she eventually tries to perpetrate self-destruction by taking a clump of Barbitals. She is tired of being watched, by work forces, other adult females, and even now, herself. ? It took her a long clip to get down all 20 of them. She stood watching her contemplation with deep, impersonal involvement, analyzing the motions of the gulping pharynx. Once more she spoke aloud. ? For God? s interest. Try and hearten up by Thursday, will you? ? she said. ? Well, you know what he can make. He and the whole batch of them? ( Gill 205 ) . ?

Her choler and disgust is voiced, and she eventually decides to set herself out of her ain wretchedness, by killing the madwoman that she has become and can non get away.

However, Lansky explains the concluding female problem, which offers no solutions to her state of affairs, as Hazel Morse continues to populate. Nettie, the black amah, finds Hazel passed out in her bed vulnerable and at the same clip repulsive, and fetches the male physician to wake up her from her attempted flight ( 226 ) . Hazel wakes up to a pinch of world from the physician and realizes she has become unsuccessful in her test of self-destruction, so it is back to the bottle and the ageless panoptic regard.

Lansky does a great occupation of demoing the effects of intoxicant on adult females in the Jazz Age. She compares Parker? s narrative? Big Blonde? to Porter? s narrative? Ship of Fools, ? which besides portrays a adult female alcoholic plagued by the panoptic regard. Comparative surveies are interesting to see, particularly when the two authors are of the same clip period, such as Parker and Porter. However, the cultural and feminist facets are cardinal to? Big Blonde? and took precedency to? Ship of Fools? in this survey because of limited clip. The article goes into a spot of item about Parker? s ain matrimony and intoxicant jobs, but it is slender in comparing to the account of the females? job with the panoptic regard. Lansky puts most of the concentration of her survey on the function of the adult females, and some on the function of work forces in the 1920? s-30? s civilization, but fails to explicate the function of black adult females and work forces who are a portion of Parker? s? Big Blonde. ? Another of import cultural and historical facet, which she barely touched on at all, was the importance of money and material ownerships to the work forces and peculiarly the adult females of the Jazz Age. It is most likely this ground that kept the adult female within the confines of the function of the? good athletics. ?

However, Pettit talks extensively about this facet in? Material Girls in the Jazz Age. ? She suggests that Parker? s? Big Blonde? is an reply to Anita Loo? s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos was another female author who emerged out of the 1920? s. The supporter in her movie, Lorelei, is like Parker? s supporter, Hazel, in that she must trust on work forces to achieve the ownerships and life style that she desires to hold as her ain. ? The? typical? gift was rent, nutrient, drink, and other necessities? ( 52-53 ) . The material miss of the wind age received these gifts from work forces if they were? good sports. ? Because the times put such importance on these gifts, including the credence and esteem from work forces, adult females were non about to decline playing the game. Lorelei is different from Hazel because she relies on her encephalons ( by oblique and selfish plotting ) instead than her expressions to pull her work forces. Nor does she try self-destruction to get away the function. She keeps playing the game because she enjoys her topographic point within society. Pettit points out that she is unlike Hazel, ? who forces her pess into? pug-nosed, high-heeled slippers of the shortest endurable size, ? symbolic of the ill-fitting function of? good athletics? ( 52 ) .

Both Loo? s film and Parker? s article are criticisms against matrimony and demo how harmful the ignorance and dependence of the adult female on a adult male can be by remaining in these socially constructed functions. Pettit points out that, ? Both Lorelei and Hazel play the trade goods game with their male opposite numbers, but Hazel, through her physical, mental, and emotional diminution, portrays the high monetary value such a game exacts on a huge bulk of adult females who play it. ? Large Blonde? replies Lorelei? s good executed but glib success by offering a much harsher review of the commodification of adult females? ( Pettit 53 ) .

It is interesting to see a similar intervention of feminist facets such as stereotypes and the demand for independency in Parker and Loos plants, and it does turn out the cultural influences on authors of the Jazz Age. But Pettit did non advert the black adult female? s function in the economic game, which would be interesting for? Big Blonde? , because one of the minor black functions was a cocotte, who was really portrayed more appealing than Hazel. This is an interesting fact, and is explained by Simpson in her article? Black on Blonde: The Africanist presence in Dorothy Parker? s? Big Blonde? . ?

Although there are merely three minor black characters within? Large Blonde, ?

They serve as of import figures cardinal to the subjects of enprisonment and bondage of the female. Simpson explains, ? These figures bear the heavy organic structure of the kiping Morse across the narrative span back to address. They rescue her and make more. They illuminate Morse? s status, and they complicate the narrative. They engage the narrative of the blonde in a deeper duologue with her keepers? ( 106-107 ) . The negative intensions that are linked to? inkiness? become reflected upon Morse and her impotence in the state of affairs. Nettie, ? the colored amah, ? is the 1 who finds Morse about dead after taking the smattering of Barbitals, and it is she who fetches the male physician who brings Hazel back to world of the state of affairs. Simpson states that, ? The amah facilitates an agreement that deepens Morse? s isolation and renders progressively conditional her evident freedom. Nettie gives coherency to a sphere explicitly framed to function male involvements? ( 108 ) . A shared individuality is formed between Nettie and Hazel as captive females within society? s restraints. This is portrayed in their treatment about Hazel? s suffering status after Nettie comes to her deliverance and they both have a drink of score. Nettie helped non merely Hazel, but besides the reader in a find that would hold been lost if Hazel had been successful at her effort at killing herself ( the madwoman ) . Simpson notes that, ? A reclaimed Morse, on the other manus, is a adult female without the blinds, eventually and to the full cognizant. The character that saves Morse assumes the meanspirited, dismissive, cold qualities of all the blonde? s keepers. Nettie becomes, in consequence, the punishing voice of the societal organic structure that creates and destroys Morse? ( 109 ) .

Another of import black character in? Big Blonde? is the? dark miss? who is more than probably a cocotte who is entertaining the physician before Nettie call upon him to assist Hazel. The cocotte is portrayed as a sexually desirable female worthy of a adult male? s fondnesss. She does non trust on the adult male for the trade goods of the times ; she takes the duty on herself and becomes the incarnation of independency and blazing gender.

Simpson points out that, ? Morse and her crowd represent a market place where work forces pay and adult females are kept, but the commercial nature of the dealing is masked by a logic of societal confederations. Racial difference undercuts that logic to expose a political relations behind Morse? s forsaking of her ain organic structure. She is depicted as sexually apathetic, impersonal to the progresss of her work forces? The look of sexual consciousness, desire, and bureau is displaced onto the Africanist figures of the lift attender and the cocotte? ( 107 ) .

Simpson? s analysis of? Big Blonde? is really good in foregrounding the cultural facet that trades with minority. It is a fresh attack and it efficaciously portrays non merely the black and white female? s function, but besides the society who places them within these restraints. The lone facet Simpson left out was Parker? s function in the narrative, which many other critics have been speedy to make.

Brendan Gill and Acocella give the best biographical information about Parker? s life. Gill tells us in his debut to The Portable Dorothy Parker, that she was born in 1893 and began composing short narratives and love verse forms foregrounding the relationships between work forces and adult females, in her early mid-twentiess. Her childhood had been peculiarly unsmooth since she lost her female parent at an early age and acquired a hated stepmother ( Acocella 76 ) . After her male parent died, Parker moved off from New Jersey to her beloved and favourite metropolis of New York, where she worked for Vanity Fair. Her column Modern Love, which commented and explored the subjects of heterosexualism, heterosociality, and matrimony, was a immense success and was loved by both adult females and work forces of the times ( Miller 764-765 ) . It was in this clip that she was working for Vanity Fair, in which she met her closest friends whom were largely work forces, including other authors such as Robert Benchley, Earnest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Robert Sherwood, and became associated with the famed Algonquin Round Table ( Acocella 76 ) .

The cultural period of the Jazz Age was surrounded by the thoughts of societal interacting at parties, where imbibing, dance, and dish the dirting took topographic point among friends. Parker was one of the favourites and became known for her speedy humor and sarcastic wit ( Acocella 76 ) . Since Parker was the lone female of the group, there was huge force per unit area on her to play the? sport. ? It is possibly this really ground why so many of her short narratives and verse forms reflect this relationship between work forces and adult females. But Acocella notes, the success that came from the publication of these many celebrated narratives, including the award winning? Big Blonde, ? did non convey her felicity.

So she tried to make full this nothingness by holding promiscuous love personal businesss and finally got married to Alan Campbell, an histrion and a ramping alky ( Acocella 78 ) . She became his imbibing spouse and was shortly fighting with turns of depression because of her failed matrimonies. It is here where so many critics like Acocella and Gill, comparison Parker to her chief supporter, Hazel Morse. Both were have oning? places that fit excessively tight, ? and were acrimonious and suffering at playing the? sport. ? Like Hazel, Parker attempted suicide a few times by taking smattering of Veronals ( Acocell 78 ) . But the critics imply that Parker was all talk when it came to decease, because she did non decease until 1967 of a bosom onslaught. Parker had disappeared from the composing scene any old ages before this decease and the populace was surprised when they heard of her decease, for they though that it had happened old ages ago ( Gill xiv ) . Alcohol had been the stoping to her death, merely as Hazel? s had been in? Large Blonde. ?

This is beyond a point of significance. Parker and Hazel are, in about every facet, the same individual. However, the difference is that Parker had the power as a successful adult female author and didn? T recognize it. She didn? Ts need to trust on a adult male like Hazel did for the trade goods that were so indispensable to the clip. But because the force per unit area was so demanding on adult females in the societal scene to be a? athletics? , to do the work forces laugh, to be the desirable female that was worthy of a hubby, Parker fell into the socially annihilating function. All these attacks that have been presented can be combined together to do a critical societal statement about the society in which P

arker, and other adult females of the 1920? s were populating.

The Danger of Playing the Sport: The 1920? s and Dorothy Parker? s? Large Blonde. ?

The 1920? s and early 1930? s, besides called the Jazz Age, was a clip for merriment and demoing off. Dancing, traveling to dinner parties, and imbibing and smoke with friends became the high spot of the times. The economical universe had come to the head, puting great importance on trade goods. Cars, jewellery, and an attractive spouse were regarded as necessities. New assuring callings became available to work forces, such as attorneies and bankers. The typical? man of affairs? image had emerged, which is still valued today, about sixty old ages subsequently.

However, adult females? s economic chances remained limited, so they were forced to play the game: to happen a adult male who would supply these much wanted ownerships and hopefully acquire married and have a household. Styles drastically changed. Gone were the yearss of the? antique miss? and now was the clip of the glamourous and sophisticated flapper. Womans were allowing their hair down, showing their gender with newfound freedom. The yearss had come where they could eventually be seen someplace else besides the place, and that topographic point had become on the arm of a adult male, particularly for societal assemblages. Marriage, money, and felicity were the new adult female? s pursuit, and in most of their eyes the lone reply was the opposite sex ( Pettit 50 ) .

These expected and equivocal gender functions, peculiarly the adult females? s function, of the clip are interesting to analyze because they show the displacement that had taken topographic point from the Victorian epoch, and can outdo be seen in the Hagiographas of the 1920? s and 30? s discourse. Female authors of that clip best portray the displacement that had taken topographic point from the? old individualities? of the Victorian manner of believing to the? new individualities? of the speakeasies manner of thought. One of the most good known authors for these times is Dorothy Parker, a sarcastic and witty poet and author besides celebrated for her place at the Algonquin Round tabular array ( Acocella 76 ) . Almost all of her verse forms and short narratives deal with the relationship between work forces and adult females and the consequence that the Jazz Age had on them, peculiarly the adult females in the state of affairs. Acocella explains, ? We see them at the speakeasy, drunkenly kicking to their friends about disregard, treachery? ( 80 ) . The best portraiture of the socially constructed gender functions and the hopelessness of male-female dealingss of the times is seen in Parker? s most celebrated short narrative, ? Big Blonde? , which won the O. Henry Prize in 1929 ( Acocella 76 ) .

Because Parker? s ain life reflected that of the supporter, Hazel Morse, of? Big Blonde, ? most recent critics such as Joan Acocella, Nina Miller, and Brendan Gill among many others have taken a biographical attack in analysing this narrative. However, it is besides of import to look at the historical period and the consequence that the displacement had made on gender functions, specifically feminine, which would explicate the similarities between Parker and the character of Hazel Morse. Rhonda Pettit attacks? Big Blonde? in this manner by comparing two female authors, including Parker and Loos, in their similar portraiture of the stuff miss in the Jazz Age. Cultural/historical unfavorable judgment has been another manner to near Parker? s narrative, by analyzing non merely the clip period the narrative was written, but besides the patterns of the society in that clip period. Ellen Lansky takes this attack, uniting it with gender surveies, and examines the effects of intoxicant, which had become the most popular signifier of societal interaction, on work forces and adult females and their relationships. Another cultural critic, Amelia Simpson, analyzes? Big Blonde? through the black female? s function in the narrative.

Each attack highlights some important facet of Parker? s? Big Blonde ; ? nevertheless, all of these attacks together serve to efficaciously analyse Parker? s? Big Blonde. ? I combined the biographical with the historical/cultural/feminist positions in my ain analysis of the narrative and found that the female of the 1920? s on into the 1930? s had been placed into an equivocal and contradictory socially constructed function, which resulted in harmful behaviours and attitudes. And because Parker was really much a portion of the popular civilization of the Jazz Age, she herself is an illustration of the adult female playing the good? athletics? , tantrum to the outlooks of society.

The? good athletics? was the adult female who accompanied a adult male on his societal excursions, which about ever included imbibing intoxicant, express joying at his every gag, and ne’er of all time demoing any sort of hapless or cockamamie emotion. Hazel Morse, the chief character of? Big Blonde? who had one time been a dilutant, younger, bosomy blonde working as a frock theoretical account, was now in her in-between mid-thirtiess playing the? good athletics? function to travel rapidly and happen a adult male whom she could settle down with.

? Work force liked her, and she took it for granted that the liking of many work forces was a desirable thing. Popularity seemed to her to be worth all the work that had to be put into its accomplishment. Work force liked you because you were fun, and when they liked you they took you out, and at that place you were. So, and successfully, she was merriment. She was a good athletics. Men liked a good athletics? ( Gill 187 ) .

This was the function of the female of the Jazz Age. Hazel Morse shortly finds herself a hubby, Herbie, in the societal scene. They get married and halt traveling out like they used to when they foremost met. However, she becomes excessively comfy after the exhilaration of the matrimony wears down. Herbie no longer wants to remain at place watching her call at the sympathetic things, ? kidnapped babes, abandoned married womans, unemployed work forces? ( 189 ) , that adult females cry about. He wants the old Hazel dorsum who would express joy at his gags, throw back a drink, and bury about all the concerns in life. Hazel tries to salvage the matrimony by returning to the patterns of the good old yearss, and win back Herbie? s love. As Lansky suggests Hazel had fallen into, ? alcohol addiction and the? female problems? that they encounter as they try to negociate a life for themselves in a civilization that asks them, as heterosexual adult females, to subordinate their organic structures, desires, and aspirations to their male spouses? ( 212 ) .

This cultural attack serves as a great manner of analysing? Big Blonde? because it portrays the new function for the adult female of the Jazz Age. Lansky besides shows how intoxicant had become a societal job for both adult females and work forces of that clip, and so how the job perpetuates itself. Men expected the adult females to function as their confederate in imbibing and partying, but at the same clip act like a adult female with self-respect and regard, which was barely of all time met under the influence of intoxicant ( 221 ) . So the adult females find themselves in contradictory functions, one in which they must back up their adult male in his imbibing and merriment ( the new? anything goes? adult female ) , and in another by remaining responsible but subservient to their adult male ( the antique good miss ) . If these outlooks were non met so the adult female would be served a penalty by losing the matrimony and being left entirely ( 213 ) . This is where Hazel Morse finds herself. Herbie leaves her finally because they can non interrupt out of their constructed imbibing functions, and she is left one time once more as a individual older adult female expected to play the? good athletics? in order to maintain the adult male.

Lansky so presents the 2nd female problem, the panoptic regard and the adult female alky. This is when the adult female becomes a captive, and ne’er sees the inspector whom is ever maintaining ticker over her in the Panopticon. The inspector can be anybody from the adult male, to other adult females, to the reader in a narrative such as? Big Blonde. ? She ( the captive ) becomes accustomed to this relationship and so internalizes the panoptic regard, foremost by credence and so by really penalizing herself ( 217 ) . As Lansky points out, ? Hazel Morse must experience angered about the fact that her matrimony, with its promises of economic and emotional security, practically dissolves nightlong, but a good athletics does non demo her fury. She is caught up in a fierce, dual panoptic regard, one that disciplines alcohol addiction and one that disciplines adult females, sometimes consecutive, sometimes at the same time. In this state of affairs she can non exhibit appropriate? female? behaviours, and she is punished by all of the inspectors? ( 222 ) .

This leads to the 3rd female problem of alcohol addiction and the madwoman, which is a term that emerged out of Charlotte Bronte? s Jane Eyre. The women’s rightists Susan Gilbert and Susan Gubar used this term to explicate a societal building that resulted in force and fury from the adult female who was stuck in the Panopticon ( 223 ) . Hazel Morse is clearly a madwoman by the terminal of the narrative where she eventually tries to perpetrate self-destruction by taking a clump of Barbitals. She is tired of being watched, by work forces, other adult females, and even now, herself. ? It took her a long clip to get down all 20 of them. She stood watching her contemplation with deep, impersonal involvement, analyzing the motions of the gulping pharynx. Once more she spoke aloud. ? For God? s interest. Try and hearten up by Thursday, will you? ? she said. ? Well, you know what he can make. He and the whole batch of them? ( Gill 205 ) . ?

Her choler and disgust is voiced, and she eventually decides to set herself out of her ain wretchedness, by killing the madwoman that she has become and can non get away.

However, Lansky explains the concluding female problem, which offers no solutions to her state of affairs, as Hazel Morse continues to populate. Nettie, the black amah, finds Hazel passed out in her bed vulnerable and at the same clip repulsive, and fetches the male physician to wake up her from her attempted flight ( 226 ) . Hazel wakes up to a pinch of world from the physician and realizes she has become unsuccessful in her test of self-destruction, so it is back to the bottle and the ageless panoptic regard.

Lansky does a great occupation of demoing the effects of intoxicant on adult females in the Jazz Age. She compares Parker? s narrative? Big Blonde? to Porter? s narrative? Ship of Fools, ? which besides portrays a adult female alcoholic plagued by the panoptic regard. Comparative surveies are interesting to see, particularly when the two authors are of the same clip period, such as Parker and Porter. However, the cultural and feminist facets are cardinal to? Big Blonde? and took precedency to? Ship of Fools? in this survey because of limited clip. The article goes into a spot of item about Parker? s ain matrimony and intoxicant jobs, but it is slender in comparing to the account of the females? job with the panoptic regard. Lansky puts most of the concentration of her survey on the function of the adult females, and some on the function of work forces in the 1920? s-30? s civilization, but fails to explicate the function of black adult females and work forces who are a portion of Parker? s? Big Blonde. ? Another of import cultural and historical facet, which she barely touched on at all, was the importance of money and material ownerships to the work forces and peculiarly the adult females of the Jazz Age. It is most likely this ground that kept the adult female within the confines of the function of the? good athletics. ?

However, Pettit talks extensively about this facet in? Material Girls in the Jazz Age. ? She suggests that Parker? s? Big Blonde? is an reply to Anita Loo? s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Anita Loos was another female author who emerged out of the 1920? s. The supporter in her movie, Lorelei, is like Parker? s supporter, Hazel, in that she must trust on work forces to achieve the ownerships and life style that she desires to hold as her ain. ? The? typical? gift was rent, nutrient, drink, and other necessities? ( 52-53 ) . The material miss of the wind age received these gifts from work forces if they were? good sports. ? Because the times put such importance on these gifts, including the credence and esteem from work forces, adult females were non about to decline playing the game. Lorelei is different from Hazel because she relies on her encephalons ( by oblique and selfish plotting ) instead than her expressions to pull her work forces. Nor does she try self-destruction to get away the function. She keeps playing the game because she enjoys her topographic point within society. Pettit points out that she is unlike Hazel, ? who forces her pess into? pug-nosed, high-heeled slippers of the shortest endurable size, ? symbolic of the ill-fitting function of? good athletics? ( 52 ) .

Both Loo? s film and Parker? s article are criticisms against matrimony and demo how harmful the ignorance and dependence of the adult female on a adult male can be by remaining in these socially constructed functions. Pettit points out that, ? Both Lorelei and Hazel play the trade goods game with their male opposite numbers, but Hazel, through her physical, mental, and emotional diminution, portrays the high monetary value such a game exacts on a huge bulk of adult females who play it. ? Large Blonde? replies Lorelei? s good executed but glib success by offering a much harsher review of the commodification of adult females? ( Pettit 53 ) .

It is interesting to see a similar intervention of feminist facets such as stereotypes and the demand for independency in Parker and Loos plants, and it does turn out the cultural influences on authors of the Jazz Age. But Pettit did non advert the black adult female? s function in the economic game, which would be interesting for? Big Blonde? , because one of the minor black functions was a cocotte, who was really portrayed more appealing than Hazel. This is an interesting fact, and is explained by Simpson in her article? Black on Blonde: The Africanist presence in Dorothy Parker? s? Big Blonde? . ?

Although there are merely three minor black characters within? Large Blonde, ?

They serve as of import figures cardinal to the subjects of enprisonment and bondage of the female. Simpson explains, ? These figures bear the heavy organic structure of the kiping Morse across the narrative span back to address. They rescue her and make more. They illuminate Morse? s status, and they complicate the narrative. They engage the narrative of the blonde in a deeper duologue with her keepers? ( 106-107 ) . The negative intensions that are linked to? inkiness? become reflected upon Morse and her impotence in the state of affairs. Nettie, ? the colored amah, ? is the 1 who finds Morse about dead after taking the smattering of Barbitals, and it is she who fetches the male physician who brings Hazel back to world of the state of affairs. Simpson states that, ? The amah facilitates an agreement that deepens Morse? s isolation and renders progressively conditional her evident freedom. Nettie gives coherency to a sphere explicitly framed to function male involvements? ( 108 ) . A shared individuality is formed between Nettie and Hazel as captive females within society? s restraints. This is portrayed in their treatment about Hazel? s suffering status after Nettie comes to her deliverance and they both have a drink of score. Nettie helped non merely Hazel, but besides the reader in a find that would hold been lost if Hazel had been successful at her effort at killing herself ( the madwoman ) . Simpson notes that, ? A reclaimed Morse, on the other manus, is a adult female without the blinds, eventually and to the full cognizant. The character that saves Morse assumes the meanspirited, dismissive, cold qualities of all the blonde? s keepers. Nettie becomes, in consequence, the punishing voice of the societal organic structure that creates and destroys Morse? ( 109 ) .

Another of import black character in? Big Blonde? is the? dark miss? who is more than probably a cocotte who is entertaining the physician before Nettie call upon him to assist Hazel. The cocotte is portrayed as a sexually desirable female worthy of a adult male? s fondnesss. She does non trust on the adult male for the trade goods of the times ; she takes the duty on herself and becomes the incarnation of independency and blazing gender.

Simpson points out that, ? Morse and her crowd represent a market place where work forces pay and adult females are kept, but the commercial nature of the dealing is masked by a logic of societal confederations. Racial difference undercuts that logic to expose a political relations behind Morse? s forsaking of her ain organic structure. She is depicted as sexually apathetic, impersonal to the progresss of her work forces? The look of sexual consciousness, desire, and bureau is displaced onto the Africanist figures of the lift attender and the cocotte? ( 107 ) .

Simpson? s analysis of? Big Blonde? is really good in foregrounding the cultural facet that trades with minority. It is a fresh attack and it efficaciously portrays non merely the black and white female? s function, but besides the society who places them within these restraints. The lone facet Simpson left out was Parker? s function in the narrative, which many other critics have been speedy to make.

Brendan Gill and Acocella give the best biographical information about Parker? s life. Gill tells us in his debut to The Portable Dorothy Parker, that she was born in 1893 and began composing short narratives and love verse forms foregrounding the relationships between work forces and adult females, in her early mid-twentiess. Her childhood had been peculiarly unsmooth since she lost her female parent at an early age and acquired a hated stepmother ( Acocella 76 ) . After her male parent died, Parker moved off from New Jersey to her beloved and favourite metropolis of New York, where she worked for Vanity Fair. Her column Modern Love, which commented and explored the subjects of heterosexualism, heterosociality, and matrimony, was a immense success and was loved by both adult females and work forces of the times ( Miller 764-765 ) . It was in this clip that she was working for Vanity Fair, in which she met her closest friends whom were largely work forces, including other authors such as Robert Benchley, Earnest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Robert Sherwood, and became associated with the famed Algonquin Round Table ( Acocella 76 ) .

The cultural period of the Jazz Age was surrounded by the thoughts of societal interacting at parties, where imbibing, dance, and dish the dirting took topographic point among friends. Parker was one of the favourites and became known for her speedy humor and sarcastic wit ( Acocella 76 ) . Since Parker was the lone female of the group, there was huge force per unit area on her to play the? sport. ? It is possibly this really ground why so many of her short narratives and verse forms reflect this relationship between work forces and adult females. But Acocella notes, the success that came from the publication of these many celebrated narratives, including the award winning? Big Blonde, ? did non convey her felicity.

So she tried to make full this nothingness by holding promiscuous love personal businesss and finally got married to Alan Campbell, an histrion and a ramping alky ( Acocella 78 ) . She became his imbibing spouse and was shortly fighting with turns of depression because of her failed matrimonies. It is here where so many critics like Acocella and Gill, comparison Parker to her chief supporter, Hazel Morse. Both were have oning? places that fit excessively tight, ? and were acrimonious and suffering at playing the? sport. ? Like Hazel, Parker attempted suicide a few times by taking smattering of Veronals ( Acocell 78 ) . But the critics imply that Parker was all talk when it came to decease, because she did non decease until 1967 of a bosom onslaught. Parker had disappeared from the composing scene any old ages before this decease and the populace was surprised when they heard of her decease, for they though that it had happened old ages ago ( Gill xiv ) . Alcohol had been the stoping to her death, merely as Hazel? s had been in? Large Blonde. ?

This is beyond a point of significance. Parker and Hazel are, in about every facet, the same individual. However, the difference is that Parker had the power as a successful adult female author and didn? T recognize it. She didn? Ts need to trust on a adult male like Hazel did for the trade goods that were so indispensable to the clip. But because the force per unit area was so demanding on adult females in the societal scene to be a? athletics? , to do the work forces laugh, to be the desirable female that was worthy of a hubby, Parker fell into the socially annihilating function. All these attacks that have been presented can be combined together to do a critical societal statement about the society in which Parker, and other adult females of the 1920? s were populating.