"Head and Shoulders"

At the age of thirteen, Horace Tarbox takes a text to enter Princeton University, and he is admitted. He receives dozens of academic honors while studying at Princeton, and by the time he is seventeen he is considered the school's greatest scholar. One night, while Horace is studying, he hears a knock on his door. Assuming that it's his laundry, he tells the person to just leave the laundry by the door, but the person states that she's not there to give him his laundry. The girl is actually Marcia, a young actress whom has taken it upon herself to show Horace a different perspective on life. The two of them become close, and Marcia convinces Horace to come watch one of her theater performances. While watching the performance, Horace discovers different emotions and becomes interested in women. As the story goes on, Horace grows an appreciation for other things in life, especially gymnastics. Likewise, Marcia grows an appreciation for literature, and becomes a writer.

To me, this story has a lot to say about expanding one's horizons. It's easy for us to get caught up in doing what we assume we will be doing for the rest of our lives, and we become reluctant to try anything else.  At the same time, it also has a lot to say about sticking to your priorities. Horace becomes caught up in this strange romance with Marcia, and allows himself to wander off from his studies, starting a new hobby of gymnastics. Marcia writes a book, and uses most of her ideas for the book from Horace's life and Horace's views on certain things. If Horace hadn't gotten so caught up in this romance, he may have been able to become a very accomplished scholar. It's interesting to me that this story imply these two opposing themes, and it makes me wonder why Fitzgerald did this.

"The Jelly-Bean"

Jim Powell is introduced as a Jelly-bean in the first sentence of the story. He is a young man born and raised in a town in southern Georgia. While growing up, Jim becomes friends with several boys in the town. Jim's life is drastically changed when he and his friends mature, and start hanging out with girls. Jim feels uncomfortable around girls, so he abandons his friends and dedicates his life to working. Over time, Jim becomes a very skilled mechanic, and a very skilled dice roller. One day, he is approached by his old friend, Clark. Clark invites Jim to a party at the country club, and Jim reluctantly agrees to attend the party. When Clark goes to pick Jim up on the night of the party, they catch up with each other and become close again. Jim doesn't want to dance at the party, so Clark agrees to sit with Jim while he isn't dancing. Once at the party, Jim notices Nancy, a beautiful girl he had grown up with. She is there with a doctor from Savannah. Clark gives Jim his drink to hold, and, out of boredom, Jim goes outside to sit down. He is approached by Nancy, who has just stepped on a piece of gum and is attempting to scrape it off. They start talking, and Jim suggests that they pour gasoline on it. The gum is removed, and they start drinking and talking. They become friendly, but Nancy eventually goes back inside to dance with her date. Near, the end of the party, Nancy, Jim, Clark, and a couple of other friends start to roll dice. Nancy starts to lose, so Jim offers to roll for her a couple of times. Jim wins her all of her money back, and Nancy kisses Jim. Jim is completely infatuated with Nancy. He even yells that he is in love with her when he is alone later. The next day, Clark informs Jim that Nancy left for Savannah that morning to marry the doctor she went to the dance with.

This story definitely took a different turn than I expected. It seemed like the typical underdog story of a young man falling in love, and I would have been completely satisfied with this because the story was well written and entertaining. In the beginning of the story, Fitzgerald tells the story of Jim the "Jelly Bean" as if he were telling it to a friend. This was an interesting way to start off the story, and I thought it was pretty entertaining. I really liked the dialogue exchanges between strange characters like Nancy and Jim. Their first conversation revealed personality traits of each character that would not have been revealed in any other way. The plotline was also pretty interesting, and I think that it had some moral value, but not as much as his other stories.