Quinn McNamara
English 1010 F 9:00-12:00
Professor McKeever
5 November 2012
Marilyn Monroe as an Allusion
Marilyn Monroe was an American movie actress (born Norma Jean Mortenson, later Baker, in
1926) She was a blond haired women
who became Hollywood’s number one sex symbol. She used her beauty mixed with
vulnerability and innocence to show off her sex appeal. Movies she starred in
consist of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953) and Some Like it Hot (1959). She unfortunately passed in 1962 due to
an overdose of sleeping pills. People often refer someone to or as Marilyn
Monroe one talking about beauty or sex appeal. An example of Marilyn used as an
allusion is in Tom Sharpe’s Gronchester
Grind (1995) “The people protecting you have morticians who made Boris
Karloff look like Marilyn Monroe.”( qtd. In Delahunty, Dignen, and Stock 36)
here the phrase is talking about these morticians who are great at prepping dead
bodies to look livelier and not so lifeless. When the author says that the
morticians made a dead man look like Marilyn Monroe the allusion comes into play
by her name being used representing beauty. So intern the author means the
morticians, made someone in a sense beautiful by saying the dead person was made
beautiful by saying “the morticians made Boris Karloff look like Marilyn
Monroe.”
Works Cited
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “Marilyn Monroe” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New
York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print
English 1010 F 9:00-12:00
Professor McKeever
5 November 2012
Marilyn Monroe as an Allusion
Marilyn Monroe was an American movie actress (born Norma Jean Mortenson, later Baker, in
1926) She was a blond haired women
who became Hollywood’s number one sex symbol. She used her beauty mixed with
vulnerability and innocence to show off her sex appeal. Movies she starred in
consist of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953) and Some Like it Hot (1959). She unfortunately passed in 1962 due to
an overdose of sleeping pills. People often refer someone to or as Marilyn
Monroe one talking about beauty or sex appeal. An example of Marilyn used as an
allusion is in Tom Sharpe’s Gronchester
Grind (1995) “The people protecting you have morticians who made Boris
Karloff look like Marilyn Monroe.”( qtd. In Delahunty, Dignen, and Stock 36)
here the phrase is talking about these morticians who are great at prepping dead
bodies to look livelier and not so lifeless. When the author says that the
morticians made a dead man look like Marilyn Monroe the allusion comes into play
by her name being used representing beauty. So intern the author means the
morticians, made someone in a sense beautiful by saying the dead person was made
beautiful by saying “the morticians made Boris Karloff look like Marilyn
Monroe.”
Works Cited
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “Marilyn Monroe” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New
York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print