The Last of the Belles by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Last of the Belles" by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a short story reflecting on themes of lost youth and the fading glamour of traditional Southern femininity, embodied in the character of Ailie Calhoun. Set in the small Georgia town of Tarleton during World War I, the narrative follows Ailie, a captivating and vivacious young woman pursued by several military officers, including the narrator, Andy. The story explores Ailie's complex attraction to Earl Schoen, a brash outsider, highlighting her struggle between societal expectations and personal desires. As Ailie ultimately rejects her suitors, she becomes emblematic of a bygone era, representing the last of the Southern belles who are unable to navigate the changes of a modernizing world.
The tone of the narrative is nostalgic, reflecting Fitzgerald's own experiences and his poignant sense of lost opportunities. Through Andy's return to the remnants of the abandoned Army camp, the story illustrates a deep yearning for the past and the disillusionment that often accompanies the passage of time. Overall, "The Last of the Belles" captures a moment of transition in American culture, examining the interplay between romantic ideals and stark realities.
The Last of the Belles by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1929 (collected in The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1989)
Type of work: Short story
The Work
“The Last of the Belles” combines autobiographical elements of Fitzgerald’s courtship of Zelda Sayre and his theme of the lost dreams of youthful promise. Beautiful, blond, and vivacious, Ailie Calhoun captivates all the young officers who meet her in the small Georgia town of Tarleton, where they are in training for World War I. Many pursue her, including the narrator, Andy, and one young man may even have killed himself in a plane crash because of her. Ailie is perversely attracted to—and at the same time repelled by—Earl Schoen, an uncouth Yankee who is alien to everything she has known. In the end, she rejects all her beaux but is herself rejected by time and the modern world, which leaves her as the last of the traditional southern belles, a memory of what was once youthful and applauded.
The tone of the story is wistful and elegiac. All the events are in the past, which heightens the sense of lost opportunity and gives added emphasis to the connections between Fitzgerald’s own life and the fictional work. At the end of the story Andy returns to Tarleton and, with Ailie, revisits the now desolate site of the abandoned Army camp. Andy wanders there, “in the knee-deep underbrush, looking for my youth in a clapboard or a strip of roofing or a rusty tomato can,” another of Fitzgerald’s heroes wondering what became of his youthful dreams and promise.
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