Fashionable Flappers: Constructing Feminity in Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Offshore Pirate and The Ice Palace

Abstract

Transition, dynamism, prosperity, freedom, and youth characterize the Roaring Twenties. Women experienced some of the most radical changes in all areas of life, private and public, and fashion reflected this newly gained freedom: shorter dresses, short hair, make-up, deep necklines, and a boyish charm. Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s writings mirror this world of contradictions: its enthusiasm and frivolity, its freedom and failures. This article analyzes two of Fitzgerald’s earliest short stories, The Offshore Pirate and The Ice Palace, in order to point out the writer’s ambiguous way of representing the flapper, positioned at the crossroads between rebellion and conventionality, emancipation and superficiality. The analysis is mainly based on an evaluation of fashion imagery, a tool into decoding Fitzgerald’s manner of constructing femininity.