Marilyn Monroe Essay Example

Marilyn Monroe Essay Introduction

Patty Ramirez Mr. Wear AP Lang/Comp 12 June 2010 Period 5 Tragedy of a Star Celebrities are swarmed by the media on a daily basis, and most of the time, are not able to lead normal lives. The media waits for some huge story to leak out through the observation of celebrities. However, paparazzi cannot be around them twenty four hours a day; in the moments they are not around, unknown events occur that ultimately can lead to tragedies.

Such tragedies, like assassinations and suicides, become subject to controversy and speculation. For example, Marilyn Monroe’s mysterious death has been analyzed for over 40 years and is still seen as an unsolved puzzle. Marilyn Monroe’s life was cut short on August 4, 1962 due to a drug overdose; her death certificate stated probable suicide; however, forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Noguchi stated that it was a murder (Bell). Why is this information hidden from the public in the 1960s? Is there more than meets the eye to Marilyn Monroe and her many affairs? Could the U.

S. government have anything to do with her sudden and unexpected death? Whatever the answers to these questions are, one thing is certain; there are too many unanswered questions for Monroe’s death to be a simple answer like suicide. Although Marilyn Monroe has been one of the most prominent and influential figures in Hollywood, she had to endure numerous hardships before she ultimately became known as a world famous actress and model. Monroe was born Norma Jeane Baker on June 1, 1926, in Los Angeles to Gladys Monroe Baker and Edward Mortenson (“The Life of Marilyn Monroe”).

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Marilyn Monroe Essay Body Paragraphs

Unfortunately, her father died in a motorcycle at the age of three and then three years later, her mother was admitted to a mental institution. Growing up in foster homes most of her childhood did not allow Monroe to have role models to look up to. Also, somewhere in the array of foster homes, Monroe was raped leaving her with mental trauma and a stutter (Wolfe). Although Marilyn Monroe mostly lived with strangers, at 15, she moved in with a family friend, Grace McKee. However, McKee’s husband was relocated to the East Coast and they could no longer care for Monroe. Monroe was left with two options: get married or be homeless. At the age of 16, Monroe married McKee’s neighbor James Dougherty and had a happy marriage until Dougherty was shipped to New Guinea with the Navy. As her loneliness grew without Dougherty, she began having many affairs such as Jose Bolanos. Then, she filed for divorce signing a deal with Twentieth Century Fox (Bell). After changing her name to Marilyn Monroe and appearing in movies like Dangerous Years, Monroe began to date her vocal coach Fred Karger and fell deeply in-love with him. He then dumped her realizing that the feelings between the two of them were not mutual. This separation devastated Monroe to the point that she attempted to end her life by slitting her wrists. Trying to move on with her life she made more films to keep herself distracted, such as The Asphalt Jungle and As Young as You Feel (IMDbPro), she met baseball star Joe DiMaggio and dated him for 5 years. They later spent a weekend together in Mexico and spontaneously decided to marry there. However, the marriage only lasted three days because DiMaggio became extremely jealous of any attention given to Monroe. Although they split up, throughout the rest of Monroe’s life they continued their intimate relationship (Guilles). Marilyn Monroe was known for being the “sexiest woman in Hollywood” (Phillips), as well as for her numerous affairs. She soon added Arthur Miller to the list of husbands and stayed with him for 6 years supposedly being the happiest she’d ever been. Still, she suffered from loneliness easily and sought comfort through sex with other men (Bell). This time, she distracted herself with the start of Marilyn Monroe Productions and ameliorated her career with the picture Some Like it Hot gaining her a Golden Globe (Spoto). At this point she was at the peak of her career but would soon turn into a downward spiral after she met former U. S. president John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy. Monroe was close friends with Pat Kennedy and through her she met the Kennedy brothers. She commenced an intimate relationship with both of them without their knowledge and ended up falling in-love with John. The new love triangle created problems since Robert felt strongly about Marilyn even though she did not feel the same way. In the meantime, the CIA began to have suspicions of Monroe’s intentions with the Kennedys and sought ways to protect them. The CIA forced the Kennedys to refrain from any contact with Monroe, which left her heartbroken (Summers). On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home at 4 AM by her housekeeper Eunice Murray. Dr. Thomas Noguchi performed the autopsy and signed the death certificate as probable suicide. However, there is an unexplained mystery behind her death as well as many theories that have arisen. For more than 40 years, her death has been analyzed over and over again by many people attempting to solve her death. Even though her death has many different hypotheses, one thing is certain: Marilyn Monroe was murdered. One of the theories still overlooked today is if the CIA assassinated her to avoid a political scandal with John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Also, it is believed that her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, killed Monroe out of anger for being fired earlier that day. It is also believed that Robert Kennedy murdered her out of spite and jealousy for Monroe’s love for his brother. All three of these theories have proved to be more likely than suicide (Bell). The presumption that the CIA assassinated Monroe has become a probable answer to Monroe’s death since the CIA had become interested in her links with the Kennedys. The CIA became worried that the Mafia would persuade Monroe to influence John F. Kennedy to resign his presidency to be with Monroe. JFK’s advisor, Peter Summers, contacted the CIA to “take care of Monroe” when it became known that Monroe was aware of government secrets that would supposedly “shock the world” according to Monroe’s friend, Peter Lawford (Coates). Also, if her death was just a suicide, why does the CIA still hold information concerning the actress’s death as classified? The theory that the CIA was involved, as well as the Kennedy administration, is a much more viable outcome than suicide since they still withhold information concerning her death (Wolfe). The speculation under Eunice Murray’s statement to the police has developed into a well-though out theory. According to Monroe’s autopsy, lividity was found on the posterior side of her body even though she was found in bed facing down. She had been dead for several hours, which illuminates the question as to why Murray waited at least 4 hours to notify authorities. When the police finally came, Murray was found cleaning the house spotless. When asked of her intentions, her response was, “I figured that a lot of people were coming so I wanted the place to look nice” (Wolfe). Plus, it is known that she was fired that morning and that she continued to get increasingly upset according to her son, Norman Jeffries. Could Monroe’s only friend really have killed her? Finally, the controversy behind the hidden information in police reports as well as alleged phone reports that provided the evidence that Monroe had made many calls the night of her murder, has allowed suspicion to fall to Robert Kennedy. Many neighbors witnessed Robert Kennedy come to Monroe’s home 30 minutes before her death with two unknown men. Local authorities merely said that the neighbors were letting their imagination get the best of them (Bell). Is it really possible for 7 different people to see the exact same thing without it being true? Monroe’s autopsy report revealed a high dosage of Nembutal, a sleeping pill that she used with alcohol to get high. However, according to the dosage discovered, Monroe would have had to ingest at least 80 pills; the empty bottles on her nightstand could only hold up to 50. Also, the Nembutal was only found in her liver instead of her digestive tract which means she would have had to be injected (Wilson). Considering the high amount of alcohol in her system, she would not have been conscious to inject herself, so who injected her? Not to mention, after Norman Jeffries went to see his mother shortly after the death of Monroe, he specified the fact that he witnessed that the file cabinets in Monroe’s office had been rummaged through (Bell). Perhaps Monroe had found vital information proving JFK to be dishonest in some way, which is probably the reason behind the classification of Monroe files, as well as the confiscation of every photo of Monroe and JFK together. Besides all the real evidence, there is also no reason for Monroe to have been depressed enough to commit suicide; she had planned a Playboy photo shoot and had rekindled her romance with Joe DiMaggio (Summers). The unexplainable disappearance of vital phone records also suggests that there is something that someone never wanted to be known even to this day. After speculation, it is evident that Marilyn Monroe was assassinated by someone that knew she was somehow a security risk to the government (“The Life of Marilyn Monroe”). It could have also been because of mere rage from Eunice Murray, however, it is now known that Monroe did not commit suicide, she loved what she did in Hollywood too much. Although there are many theories concerning her death, they all have one thing in common: Marilyn Monroe was murdered. Works Cited Bell, Rachael. “The Death of Marilyn Monroe. ” TruTV. com: Not Reality. Actuality. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. , 2010. Web. 5 June 2010. . Coates, Tim (2002). Marilyn Monroe: The F. B. I. Files. Littlehampton Book Services, UK. Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Legend: the Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe. New York: Stein and Day, 1984. Print. IMDbPro. “Marilyn Monroe. ” The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Amazon. com, 1990-2010. Web. 7 June 2010. . “The Life of Marilyn Monroe. ” Marilyn Monroe’s Official Web Site . :. About Marilyn. Web. 13 June 2010. . Phillips, Josh. “So Marilyn Monroe? ” Personal interview. 13 June 2010. Spoto, Donald (2001), Marilyn Monroe: The Biography. Cooper Square Press, N. Y. Summers, Anthony (1985). Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Orion Books Ltd. , London. Wilson, Kirk (2002). Unsolved Crimes. Carroll & Graf Publications, NY. Wolfe, Donald H. (1998) The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe. William Morrow & Company. N. Y. Wolfe, Donald H. (1999). The Assassination of Marilyn Monroe. Warner Books, UK.