The Story of Marilyn Monroe

The Story of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe once said, “Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.” Marilyn Monroe was just a normal girl who did not have it easy growing up. She did not have a mother figure in her life, and she longed to be loved. She was beautiful, but she wanted to be known for much more than her looks. Her fame came unexpectedly, but it came with consequences. It transformed her into someone she did not want to be. She spent most of her career struggling to find herself, but her public image had taken over who she was. There are two sides to every story, and in this case there are two sides to Marilyn Monroe. Her story is full of heartache, but it is one that teaches a lesson. Marilyn Monroe was more than just a popular movie star; she was a public icon who was frequently misunderstood.

Marilyn Monroe’s early life was one full of great hardship. “Marilyn was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, and spent most of her childhood in foster homes and orphanages” (“Monroe,” Encyclopedia 1). Her mother, Gladys (Monroe) Baker Mortenson, worked as a film splicer; and often visited Norma in the foster homes ("Monroe," Notable 1). Marilyn spent most of her life without a stable mother, and mental illness tended to run in her family. The first memory Marilyn had as a child, was being suffocated by her grandmother Della (Wolfe 107). Her grandmother’s mental instability led to her mother’s. “When Marilyn was seven her mother was admitted into a mental hospital and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia" ("Monroe," Notable 1). As a little girl, Marilyn had to watch both her grandmother and mother act in a way that she could not understand. Due to problems at home, school was n...

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.... She took her life before anyone ever saw her at her best, saw her for whom she really was.

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Wolfe, Donald H. The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe. New York: William Morrow, 1998. Print.