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| Anita Loos, author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
I find Lorelei to be a compelling and memorable character, and judging from the reception the book enjoyed in the 20s, so do a lot of other people. The book isn't read as much today. Some of its humor is dated by the profuse use of period-specific slang and cultural references to fads and trends of the era. But once you make your way through the 20s-era ephemera, there is still Lorelei, and I've found that her personality is still recognizable and relevant to our generation, which makes me wonder why.
Lorelei is a practical young woman who internalized the materialism of the United States in the 1920s and therefore equated culture with cold cash and tangible assets. She is a kind of "everywoman" for her time--a distillation of her culture's values. Her story is, of course, a farce, but it is a farce with subtly and purpose, revealing the folly of men and the excesses of an era. Materialism is still a big factor in American lives, of course, but I think there is more to Lorelei's resilience as an interesting character than just that. Perhaps we can explore it more in class discussion tomorrow.
Here are some other questions to think about as you read the book:
--How smart or stupid is Lorelei? Dorothy?
--Is Lorelei using the men or are they using her?
--Why do you think Edith Wharton called it "the great American novel"? Do you think she was being serious?
--What does it mean to be a "great American novel"? What kind of qualities should such a novel embody, and what does it mean to describe this rather slight novel in such terms?
--What kind of feminist readings does this book suggest?
--What about Lorelei's background, coming from a fairly poor family in Arkansas? What economic class is she from, and how is this significant to the book?
--What is the book trying to tell us about Americans' attitudes toward money? Toward gender relations?
--What does it mean to be a "great American novel"? What kind of qualities should such a novel embody, and what does it mean to describe this rather slight novel in such terms?
--What kind of feminist readings does this book suggest?
--What about Lorelei's background, coming from a fairly poor family in Arkansas? What economic class is she from, and how is this significant to the book?
--What is the book trying to tell us about Americans' attitudes toward money? Toward gender relations?
