Published in the 21 July 1934 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, "No Flowers" is one of Fitzgerald's Great Depression stories that teaches a lesson about the frugality and humility many mainstream American outlets felt were necessary to survive the economic devastation of the decade. At first glance, the story can seem frivolous or even silly compared to the proletarian fiction pouring from the pens of more radical writers. A young woman, Marjorie, struggles to accept that she lives in "the tin age," as opposed to the golden age her mother, Amanda, enjoyed as a teenager. And what makes it a tin age? Her boyfriend, Billy Johns (no relation to Billy Joel, although we try our best to force one), not only can't afford a corsage for the prom they're scheduled to attend, but due to the austerity dictates of the time, aren't allowed. The story contrasts Marjorie's moral challenges at the dance to those of her mother and her grandmother, Lucy, both of whom have melancholy experiences at their own proms that challenge their ethical sensibilities. As its strangely renunciatory title suggests, "No Flowers" is an anti-romanticist story that explores the struggles of the post-jazz generation to find some purpose in maturation in a world that seems to have lost all sense of fun. It's not a great story by any means, but as we argue, even the most expendable of Fitzgerald stories have interesting ideas.
