Big Blonde
By Dorothy Parker, first published in Bookman
As a woman grows older, she falls into a deep sadness while the men around her constantly tell her to cheer up.
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Plot Summary
A woman in her thirties models for a dress store. She is big, with blonde hair, and wears shoes too small for her feet (so that her feet look smaller than they really are). She feels she has to be happy, and she constantly goes out drinking with different groups of men. One day, she goes drinking with one man who is different and more lighthearted than the others. She falls for him and the two get married. After they get married, she spirals into a deep sadness which upsets him. As their relationship devolves, she becomes close with her neighbor and the men her neighbor spends time with. This leads to her seeing another man, and her husband leaves her. As her husband leaves the two toast. She isn’t deeply upset by this and moves to be closer to the other man. There, she makes new friends and when her new boyfriend leaves, she finds a string of men that she all regards the same way. While she feels a deep sadness, the men continually tell her to cheer up and are frustrated when she is anything but happy. One day, she spirals into a deep sadness and purchases a large amount of sleeping pills that she takes. The cleaning lady at her house finds her and gets the doctor. He comes and pumps her stomach, and the woman is saved. The blonde woman asks her cleaning lady for a drink and the cleaning woman tells her to cheer up.
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