"The Last of the Belles"

Discussion starters:

• What role does Horace Canby play in the story?

• Explain Ailie Calhoun's definition of sincere and its crucial role in Andy's perception of her.

• This story is often seen as the completion of the Tarleton trilogy, that is the third story with the Tarleton setting.  Of what importance are the earlier stories, "The Ice Palace" and "The Jelly-Bean," for understanding Ailie or Andy?

• Bullock says that Tarleton (and the whole environment of the story) is "a locality full of preconceived meanings" (131).  Identify these preconceptions and how they affect the reader's perception of the story.

Critical Sources:

	:Bullock, Heidi Kunz.  "The Southern and the Satirical in 'The Last of the Belles'". New Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Neglected Stories.  Ed. Jackson R. Bryer.  Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1996. 130-37.
	:Holman, Hugh C. “Fitzgerald’s Changes on the Southern Belle: The Tarleton Trilogy” The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Approaches in Criticism. Ed. Jackson R. Bryer.  Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1982.  53-64.
	:Kuehl, John. F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1991.