Dorothy Parker's 1922 poem 'The Flapper' attributes the flapper's ways to God and which contemporary writer?

• A. John Donne
• B. Ezra Pound
• C. James Joyce
• D. Scott Fitzgerald

Answer: (D)

The main idea being tested is Parker’s use of ironic allusion to link the flapper’s behavior to two sources of authority: God and a contemporary writer who defined the era. Parker names F. Scott Fitzgerald because he stands as the quintessential voice of the Jazz Age—celebrated for capturing the era’s glamour, excess, and shifting morals. By pairing the flapper with Fitzgerald, the poem suggests that the new woman’s attitudes are shaped not just by personal choice but by the cultural influence and literary celebrity of the moment. That tightens the satire: the flapper’s style is explained through the fame of a living writer rather than through traditional moral or religious standards. The other writers listed belong to different eras or contexts (Donne from the Elizabeathan-pope tradition, Pound and Joyce as modernists with other concerns), so they don’t fit Parker’s specific allusion to the Jazz Age authority.