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    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde"
    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde"
    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde"
    Ebook37 pages20 minutes

    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 6, 2016
    ISBN9781535819435
    A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Dorothy Parker's "Big Blonde" - Gale

      2

      Big Blonde

      Dorothy Parker

      1929

      Introduction

      Author, critic, and celebrated wit Dorothy Parker first published Big Blonde in a popular magazine in 1929, at the end of the decade with which she is closely associated. The story presents a sad and biting view of a woman’s life in the 1920s, an era often considered both fun and liberating for women. Big Blonde received a warm critical and popular reception and was honored as the best short story of the year in the prestigious O. Henry competition for 1929. A year later it appeared in a collection of stories by Parker entitled Laments for the Living, and has since been reprinted in many anthologies and readers. Big Blonde is considered Parker’s most significant literary accomplishment and also her most autobiographical piece of writing. For this reason, it has continued to command the fascination and respect of readers. The story is admired for its unconventional narrative structure and its controlled tone.

      In Mrs. Morse, the passive, aging big blonde to whom the title refers, Parker offers readers a protagonist who is both tragic and pathetic. There are several interesting links between the events in the story and those of Parker’s life. Both Parker and her fictional counterpart had brief, disillusioning marriages and a string of unsatisfying love affairs, and both attempted suicide. Parker does not depict Mrs. Morse sentimentally or even completely sympathetically, however; rather, she uses her character to make a cutting critique of gender dynamics and the subtle psychological forms that oppression can take in a supposedly modern and liberated environment. Mrs. Morse’s lack of insight and general ineffectuality may also reflect Parker’s famous self-deprecation.

      Author Biography

      Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild on August 22, 1893, in West End, New Jersey, to a Jewish garment manufacturer and his Baptist wife. Though she was privileged with material comforts, she was shown little affection as a child. Her mother died when she was an infant and her father was strict and remote. She received an excellent high school education at a prestigious finishing school, but at the time it was not considered proper for a girl to go to college. Her father died shortly after her graduation and she moved to a boarding house in Manhattan—a decidedly improper decision. Here she made her

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