The Rich Boy, F. Scott Fitzger

The story “ The Rich Boy”, by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, is not merely a battle between the rich and the poor, but also a struggle between the male and female genders. The main character, Anson Hunter, the ‘rich boy’, thinks he is socially above the few women that appear throughout the short story. His belief that women are below him causes Anson to be arrogant and conclusive about the women he meets. This attitude is what eventually leads him to a state of loneliness and remorse towards the end of the story. In short, Anson only likes the idea of women. He is afraid of commitment when he is in a relationship with a woman and he is companionless and depressed when he is not in a relationship. Anson’s alleged superiority to women leads him into his final predicament: having an affair with a random woman that is not even named by the author.

The first woman of importance in the story is Paula Legendre, described as a ‘dark serious beauty’. Anson and Paula fall in love, and have what the author describes as a ‘successful engagement’. Paula’s cousin classifies their engagement by Anson’s wealth and status, and congratulates Paula on her success. They are often seen

Anson is not only ‘assure’ of women but he believes he had a rich assimilation for other human beings and relationships, “He had an instinctive and charitable knowledge of the weaknesses of men and women, and like a priest, it made him the more concerned for the maintenance of outward forms.” Anson compares himself to, a failure to love, a cocky ‘old’ unmarried man, a priest, a holy figure. He believes he has an understanding for human weaknesses yet he can’t propose to the women he loves.

The last woman of importance that Anson has an encounter with is described as ‘the girl in the red tam’. They meet on a cruise ship and he decides to have an affair with her. She is not given a name because it does not matter what her name is. She is a symbol, a sign that Anson is already over Paula. (Paula dies in childbirth). The narrator witnesses this attraction, because he is on the same tour boat as Anson. Anson does not change throughout the story, and his confidence is what attracts the girl in the red tam. “After a while he left me, and within an hour he was walking up and down the deck with her, talking to her in his strong, clear voice. Her red tam was a bright spot of color against the steel-green sea, and from time to time she looked up with a flashing bob of her head, and smiled with amusement and interest, and anticipation.” (p.207) Anson uses his manipulative charm and his confidence to get people to like him. This is how he gains the trust of women before he spoils the relationship. His confidence and charm attracts women into his trap of self-loathing and confusion.

“The Rich Boy” portrays a tension and a struggle for power between two genders. It tells the story of a chauvinistic man living in the twenties, when women were first beginning to stand up for their rights. He sees a change in women, from Paula, a conservative, obedient woman to Dolly, a loud, flapper woman with an idealistic view of female independence. Yet even though the women he interacts with change as he gets older he remains ascertain of them, which leads him to his eventual downfall. He gets too old for marriage, his friends are all gone away with their families and he find himself utterly alone because of this ongoing as

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