Big Blonde

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1929

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Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Role of Beauty

At the beginning of “Big Blonde,” it’s apparent that Hazel Morse is concerned about her appearance, even if it involves discomfort: “She prided herself upon her small feet and suffered for her vanity, boxing them in snub-toed, high-heeled slippers of the shortest bearable size” (1). Although she’s never described as beautiful, her blond hair and buxom figure appeal to a certain type of man; she knows this, and she knows she needs to maintain her looks in order to preserve her appeal. She works as a dress model, so her profession is tied to her looks too; she’s very aware of this.

Over time, her looks begin to fade: “She spread and softened, and her darkening hair turned her to inexpert dabblings with peroxide” (3). Her darkening hair, her widening waistline, her lined face—all of these are beginning to take their toll. Furthermore, as much as she enjoyed her many nights out with her admirers, the outings have tarnished her youthful appearance. Her fading looks undoubtedly affect her popularity with men. In addition, she worries about her job—and competing with the never-ending line of younger, fresher, blonder women willing to replace her. Therefore, it’s no surprise when she decides to marry as she approaches 30. Marriage will confer upon her a higher level of social status, remove her from the singles scene, and provide financial security as she ages out of the job market. However, marriage won’t stop nature from taking its course.

When her marriage to Herbie begins to flounder, Hazel worries about how often he stays away from home, frantic that he might be spending time with other women. Society reinforces this fear: “It seemed to her that almost everything she read—novels from the drug-store lending library, magazine stories, women's pages in the papers—dealt with wives who lost their husbands’ love” (6). In an attempt to revive her marriage, she decides to join Herbie on his nightly outings, but this requires some preparation. Her tacit fear of aging is evident in the need “to alter those of her clothes that were not new, to make them fasten” (6) and then to apply rouge.

After Herbie abandons her and she takes up with Ed, she still struggles to maintain her weight by starving throughout the day, living on coffee until dinnertime (although she doesn’t reduce her alcohol intake). In this sense, Hazel is similar to the many other women who frequent Jimmy’s establishment: “There was about them the health of the big, yet a slight, unwholesome suggestion of stubborn preservation” (16).

The Changing Role of Women

A major theme in the story is the changing role of women during this time period. Women made some gains politically after the 19th amendment passed in 1920, granting them the right to vote. Also, many women answered the call to join the workforce, filling vacancies left by the men who were called away to serve in the armed forces during World War I. Additionally, social restrictions were less rigid, and women often mingled with men more freely. However, these changes brought about different conflicts, as the character of Hazel Morse reflects.

Hazel is aware that she needs to pursue a different path as she approaches 30, and Herbie offers her a way out. By the time she meets him, she’s ready to settle down. It’s no surprise that their brief, whirlwind romance ends in marriage; the timing is just right. Once she’s married, she throws herself into domesticity, glad for the break from all those nights on the town.

After the honeymoon stage is over, however, the two begin to grow apart. Hazel, enjoying the domesticity of her married life, struggles to revive it. The fact that she’s now financially dependent on Herbie is another reason she tries her best to hang on to her marriage. She joins him on his nights out and starts to drink with him. However, the result is a seemingly endless cycle of vicious, sometimes physical arguments, followed by remorseful apologies and promises for a fresh start. The cycle doesn’t end until he takes off for good. Although he leaves her with some money, Hazel is now left to fend for herself—and she does.

She soon finds herself in the company of the many aging blond women who frequent speakeasies like Jimmy’s in pursuit of support: “The aim of each [is] to have one man, permanently, to pay all her bills” (17). Even while embracing the era’s “independence,” these women use their husbands’ last names and believe that being a “Mrs.” confers both “the solidity of marriage and the glamour of freedom” (17). However, their lives have little glamour. They learn, too late, that their newfound “freedom” from social restrictions is time sensitive. No longer fresh and young, their time is up, and their options grow increasingly limited as a new generation of slim, youthful girls arrives on the scene.

Alcohol Addiction and Depression

Even before her marriage, Hazel is known to her acquaintances as a sensitive soul. After she settles down, her bouts of sadness become more frequent, and she dissolves into tears at the mention of anything sorrowful, from “kidnaped [sic] babies” to “heroic dogs” (4). After Herbie abandons her, Hazel’s descents into gloom become even more frequent. In fact, they’re the chief complaint of the suitors who step in after Herbie leaves. Alcohol helps for a while. It may not lift her spirits, but it seems to take the edge off her sadness and makes her more tolerable to the men in her life—none of whom are particularly significant to her. More than anything, they’re a means of financial support. What she feels most often is intense fatigue, coupled with melancholy.

She begins to drink with increasing frequency as the story goes on. In fact, her most long-term relationship seems to be with alcohol; it’s the one constant in her life. However, soon even alcohol betrays her. Whiskey no longer soothes her like it used to. Desperate to end her emotional pain, she becomes fixated on the idea of death by suicide. She devours newspaper articles on the subject, feeling a sense of camaraderie with those she thinks of as “the voluntary dead” (20). She considers the pros and cons of various means to this end (gun, gas, razor blade, etc.). The most appealing method, she decides, is poison—but she isn’t sure how to obtain it.

The answer comes from one of her acquaintances at Jimmy’s. All she needs to do is get ahold of the sedative veronal, which—if taken in sufficient quantity—should result in death. However, veronal isn’t legally available in New York, so (on her friend’s advice) she travels one state over, to New Jersey, to obtain an adequate supply. She then carries the vials of pills home and tenderly places them in her dressing-table drawer; just knowing they’re there seems to comfort her.

When Art, the latest in her string of suitors, leaves on a business trip, the time is right. She’s in a particularly melancholy mood, and no amount of whiskey seems to lighten it. She goes home, retrieves the vials of veronal, and diligently downs them all—but she apparently underestimated the dosage. The next day, her maid discovers her unresponsive body and goes for help. After a couple delirious days in bed, Hazel wakes up. She’s despondent to find that she’s still among the living and dreads thinking of the life ahead of her—solitary days alone in her flat followed by evenings of forced cheer at Jimmy’s. She shudders at the thought and then calls out to the maid to pour her a drink, hoping that “maybe whisky [sic] would be her friend again” (33). At the story’s end, she offers up the familiar toast: “Here’s mud in your eye” (33).