number four

I really enjoyed this story as it developed and culminated at the end. It shows that an individual can change who they are, for better or worse, or improve one’s self. The ideal way to bring about change is not to change but to improve upon one’s being. I am going through a phase right now where I am sincerely trying to improve who I am as a person. Many people, especially in high school, go through phases where they completely revamp who they are to fit in and be “popular” but this kind of change is bad and can lead to one acting out of character, as Fitzgerald tries to illustrate.
Fitzgerald represents the nature of identity as something that is unchangeable. An individual has the power to improve, but with that also the ability to regress and ultimately change who an individual is from the core, as Bernice does. Identity itself is something an individual can change, but it can come with a price. A person always has the ability to change their identity, but when someone does this, they do it for the worst, because a person steps out of their own character and morals. A better form of change is self improvement. Bernice took steps to improve herself but she could have done so without changing her identity. By bobbing her hair, a risqué act at the time, she lowered herself to the status of an object and lost a piece of her humanity. Her sole reason for the action was to gain attention. She should want to gain attention for who she is, not for a shallow and attention seeking ploy. She absolutely changed her identity in the way that others see her and the way she sees herself at the end. She knew what she was doing was “wrong” (for the time, its not as if she sinned), because she let others dictate how she would act rather than acting out of her own free will. I think she realized this at the end, which is why she ran away into the night. She was afraid of what she had become and sought comfort in avoiding the very immediate consequences, even though she knew her action might haunt her for some time.