Marilyn Monroe Essay examples

No one knows Norma Jeane Mortenson-Baker but everyone knows Marilyn Monroe. The young girl who’s never met her father and had to travel to different foster homes because her mother was mentally institutionalized to a state hospital for having paranoid schizophrenia. The Norma Jeane who had a difficult childhood, and suffered emotional problems throughout her life as a result of the lack of stability in her childhood, and her feeling of being unwanted; trying to replace the father, mother and, the family she never really had, through her marriages and by attaching herself to the families of others. The whispery, baby voice associated with Norma blatantly conveyed her appeal for protection and her desire for childhood dismissed of the brutality of being unwanted and ill-used. The common denominator of all her childhood years was the trauma of feeling totally unworthy of respect, appreciation or love. 1942, sixteen years old; tying the knot in order to gain control of her life, Norma marries her boyfriend James Dougherty. “It was a teenage wedding, and the old folks wished them well you could see that Pierre did truly love the mademoiselle and now the young monsieur and madam have rung the chapel bell, "C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell…” Doomed to fail, as most marriages are, Mr. and Mrs. Dougherty only lasted a merely four years. Of course having higher and bigger aspirations than just being Mrs. Dougherty and living “happily ever after.” It was her difficult childhood and early failed marriage would make Norma Jean a strong and resilient woman, these experiences would also add to her insecurities and flaws, things that would ultimately shape her into… Marilyn Monroe. “It was 1944, working hard at the Radio Plane Company the parachute factory in Van Nuys, California only to be paid almost $15 at the end of the week. Today seemed like any ordinary day, work was steady but not to over-bearing, (thank goodness) a nice gentleman told me that he was a photographer and that he could make me into a potential model. Nervously laughing, I said ‘sure, why not.’ Only later to find out that, he was photographer David Conover. After the first few shots and spreads in magazines it was my chance to a straight shot to fame from there,” But of course Norma wouldn’t want to be tired down with a husband who was overseas while she was signed under The Blue Book Model Agency, so she did what any aspiring star would do—divorce. Not to be mistaken, but it was only to broaden her dreams and rise to stardom, which was when she officially became Marilyn Monroe. “Marilyn - it's a common enough name when you think about it. Most of us know someone called that. But on it's own, it signifies one person, unmistakable and irreplaceable. Her surname hardly matters - it's Marilyn that tells the story in one word, a story that everyone knows more than 40 years after her untimely death that has never been forgotten. Why perhaps because despite her physical perfection she was so human in her search for love and security in an exploitive world. Perhaps it was in her sexy but somehow safe, slightly submissive screen persona that seemed such a direct mirror of her own life. Maybe it was the radiant smile and breathless comic banter that gave her such appeal. Maybe the point was that, under the scintillating surface, painted to face the world with an image of physical perfection, she was a blank canvas on which people could impose their own picture of what they thought she was.”
Things were going good for a while for Marilyn, working at Fox and two low-budget companies for a year until they dropped her and after joining Columbia and working for a while, they dropped her as well. "Fame is fickle, and I know it. It has its compensations, but it also has its drawbacks, and I've experienced them both." Having little money, hungry and in and out of work she found herself in trouble with her tenant. She’d been asked before to pose

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Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe