Analyze and discuss the Role of Gender in Joyce Carol Oates’ Blonde
Introduction
Joyce Carol is an American author and her first book was published in 1963. She has written more than forty novels as well as plays, poetry, non-fiction, short stories and novellas. She received the Award of the National Book for her best novel ‘them’ in 1969 and she is a prestigious writer. Her novels named ‘What I lived for’, ‘Black Water’ and ‘Blonde’ has received the Award of Pulitzer. She had written the novel ‘Blonde’ in the year 2000 and is the bestselling novel (Oates, 2012). In her novel, she has described the inner life chronicles of Marilyn Monroe. Her novel is a masterpiece of friction and is not a biography of Marilyn Monroe. This novel was selected for the Pulitzer prize award in 2001 and also got the Award of National Book in 2000. Entertainment Weekly and the News Rocky Mountain have proclaimed this novel as the best book. Joyce herself has said that because of this novel she will be remembered (Oates, 2012).
This novel is around 700 pages and is one of the longest fiction novels. This research is about the discussion and analysis of the role of gender as portrayed in the novel ‘Blonde’. The story is about the Marilyn Monroe legend also known as ‘Jeanne Baker Norma’. Her legend comes alive in this heartbreaking and powerful story of the myth of Hollywood. In this story, Marilyn Monroe is reborn and her untold history is brought back to life (Oates, 2012). As Marilyn Monroe was a successful Hollywood star, Joyce has retold her not known story and has showen how she rose to become the brightest Hollywood star. The story is a dazzling image of the inner life intricate of the desired and idolized Hollywood movie star Marilyn Monroe (Oates, 2012).
Analysis and Discussion of the Gender Role in Blonde
In the 1990s, we can see that the fictional manifests of Joyce Carol shows an increased interest in the problems of ethnicity and race. “Blonde” also reflects these issues of gender roles in the society. It is the story of the depiction of Marilyn Monroe that is fictional in nature (Oates, 2012). The tale reflects the white self-construction and shows that racialization is a dialogue that is complex. Racism is a complex issue between the individual and the social practices constitution. We can see the theories of feminism and the critical inspiration of the whiteness studies. The inter-sectionalism theories of feminism are examined in this novel. This signifies the impact of racism on the identity of the White female (Oates, 2012). The novel of Oates shows the effect of the concerning ideas of gender and racism roles in the society. The story aims to decipher the questions related to discursive and power conceptions that are linked with the ideas of racism and gender roles. The author has given emphasis to the formation of concepts and highlighted the interface in the American context of the literary tradition (Oates, 2012). The explanation and analysis of the story tells us that how the protagonist of the story ‘Marilyn Monroe’ constructs a racialized and gendered identity to be shown as a complex negotiation. The protagonist is also known by the name in the novel as ‘Norma Jeanne Baker’, who is engaged with the highlights of the white race as both her anxieties and desires. By doing this, the novel elicits that how racialization is limited to the female identity of the white race (Oates, 2012).
The author of this novel have indeed taking a boldest path to comprehend the ‘the curse and riddle of Monroe’. She has done this in a frankly fiction and a direct way. This novel is fierce, messy and classy (Oates). The novel comprises of Gothic ideas and is part lurid to the potboiler of celebrity. The novel is remarkable in the sense that it has achieved the visceral effect of the image of the celebrity ‘Monroe’. This has defied the speculative and the inward looking mind of the literature. In the story, the author have described the gender roles of the white females in the society. The story begins when the grandmother of Norma named’ Della Monroe’ raises her after the mother of Norma dies (Oates). The name of the mother of Norma is Gladys. The grandmother of Norma is a drunk and alcoholic but she manages to take care of her granddaughter in the best way as possible. When Norma is eight years old her mother dies because of the toxic chemicals inhaled at workplace which leads her to be hospitalized. After some time, the grandmother of Norma also dies and so the granddaughter is forced to join the system of foster care. Norma is sent to live with the couples named Warren and Elsie in the city of Los Angeles. From here begins the start of the career of Norma (Marilyn Monroe).
The foster parents of Norma sent her to high school but she leaves the school when she turns fifteen. The foster parents of Norma plans to move out and they don’t want to take Norma with them so they decides to wed her to a twenty one year old man. The forester parents tries to convince Norma to marry the man whose name is ‘Bucky Glazer’. So, Norma is married to Bucky. Bucky is a congenial person and is excellent at sports. Later, Bucky joins the military. This is the era when the second world war begins and so Bucky is listed as a marine and goes to fight the war (Oates). This signals the initial stage for the career of Norma. Norma starts her career where she is involved in photography sessions and poses for the military. At that time she doesn’t know what actually her role is so her career is launched as a pinup model. For this reason she ends up posing for various business publications. In the year 1946, she divorces Bucky and at the age of 21 is enlisted in one of the films. She at that time is given a new identity and name and is known as an executor. Thus, she secures her initial contract. The contractor suggests a new name for her and this name is ‘Marilyn Monroe’ (Oates).
Monroe soon after this contract starts a relationship with a guy named Chaplin Cass. Cass is the famous comedian’s son. Besides being in relationship with Monroe, Cass also becomes the lover of a guy named Eddy (Oates). These three refers themselves named ‘The Gemini’. In this process, Monroe is impregnated by one of those men. So, she aborts the child and leaves these two men behind. After that Monroe’s fame begins and she plays the films like Prefer Blondes, Some Like it Hot, Marrying a Millionaire etc. After these successful films, Monroe ends up marrying to an ex basketball player but actually he is Joe DiMaggio. Due to the rigorous work schedule of Monroe and the serial jealousy of the ex-basketball player the relationship doesn’t last long. Because of so many downfalls in her relation, Monroe is faced with anxiety. This creates a negative appeal on her reputation and so her fame suffers. She starts taking pills and which renders her unable to work on solid schedules (Oates).
In the ending of the novel, Monroe grows weary of being paid a meager salary for all the overworking she had done for the film industry. So she ends up this film job to join a belter pay grade job. There she meet a person name Oates who is actually the playwright of this novel. In reality that great writer is Arthur Miller (Oates). This author marries Monroe by divorcing her wife. Monroe gets divorced from Miller after five years of successful relation. In the last film of Monroe named ‘The Misfits’, the story is based on Miller and Monroe. In 1962, Monroe is found dead because of the excessive drug use. Thus, leaving a tragic and thrilling legacy during the times of war in America (Oates).
One of the terrible aspects of the tragedy of Monroe is that this need abyss was the biggest of her charms. Men loved her vulnerability and fragility. These men noticed that she has something excitable and nervousness in her face. In the series of their foster home, we can see that Monroe was boiled down into one. Her foster mother married her at age of 16 and her father lusted after her. Then comes the phase of bride for Marilyn where she experiences many things in detail. One is that her husband leaves her to fight the war as he is in the military. After her husband is gone, she tries her hand at the Riveter but she make more money by being the pinup nude girl. Here she discovers the power of here beauty and physique. She begins to exploit her powers and not knowing that this would change her life forever, As she is devouring a unique gift of the natural resource she possess. She became famous and then is enlisted for the movies.
She gets the main role in the film named ‘Niagara’. In this movie, Marilyn is given a voluptuous skin fitted shape costume, her hairs are brown honey and bleached and emerges as Marilyn. A name which she loathes. However, her innocence is still intact but she is squeezed in the film industry as a mature female (Oates). The rest of the short span of the life of Monroe can be précised in words including men and movies. She veers in her craft between the total sloppiness and perfectionism painfully. She shows up late in hours and is too drug addicted to perform well. But the directors and camera is amazed with her. She shines with a type of sexual luminescence and an eerie bland performance. The personal life of Marilyn becomes disasters magnet. She attracts the feeder of bottoms such as Edward Jr. and Charlie Chaplin. She is cast out with the off sons of royalty of Hollywood and is soaked in decadence and drugs.
The gender roles portrayed in this novel are shown in order to separate the social values of masculinity and femininity of biological sex differences. Gender is determined by the anatomical and physiological characteristics that allow people to share all men and women and to identify themselves as one of the groups. Sometimes chromosomal failure or as a result of abnormalities in the development of the embryo man is born, combining sexual characteristics in both men and women (Oates). But it happens very rarely. One psychologist said jokingly that the floor is that between the legs and gender what is between the ears. If a person’s sex is determined at birth, gender identity is formed in the process of education and socialization. Being in a society woman or man is not simply possess a certain anatomical structure, but also to have the appearance, mannerisms, behavior, habits, appropriate expectations. These expectations set certain patterns of behavior (gender roles) for men and women according to gender stereotypes that society is considered typical male or typically female. Therefore, in this novel we meet with such a variety of manifestations of male and female (Oates). Some men and women are dominated respectively masculine and feminine qualities in others there is a balance of both. Psychologists believe that androgynous personality type, which combines high performance and masculinity and femininity, are more flexible behavior, and therefore the most adaptive and psychologically safe. Therefore, the education of children in the rigid framework of traditional gender roles may give them a disservice (Oates).
Conclusion
In short, we can see the various gender roles that she played throughout the story. Her life changed when her mother and grandmother died. She suffered a lot and as a female she wasn’t able to fight against the male dominance. So, she has to turn towards her charms and she realized her powers of physical beauty. This made her famous but she lost her innocence and became drug addict (Oates). As this novel is a work of fiction and is not a biography of Marilyn Monroe, the writer of this story gets away by ignoring the certain facts with liberties. There is however a disadvantage in this. It is one of the most disturbing aspect of Oates lack of compassion related to the subject. She has referred the ‘mammalian’ body of Monroe’s to be reflected as something lesser than a human (Oates). The explanation and analysis of the story tells us that how the protagonist of the story ‘Marilyn Monroe’ constructs a racialized and gendered identity to be shown as a complex negotiation (Oates). The protagonist is also known by the name in the novel as ‘Norma Jeanne Baker’, who is engaged with the highlights of the white race as both her anxieties and desires. By doing this, the novel elicits that how racialization is limited to the female identity of the white race. This novel is written in the most elegant and polished prose. But what is the story behind this is a need that is disturbing as it feeds off the tragedy of the humans.
Work Cited
Markaj, Jenaeth. “Unlikely Heroines: Self-Destructive Sexuality and Narrative Identity-Building in the Fiction of Joyce Carol Oates.” Best Served Cold: 145.
