Three Girls Joyce Oates Analysis

In her short lifetime, Marilyn Monroe was able to state that “Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” She emphasized courage and bravery while taking on the title of America’s beloved sex symbol. Joyce Oates uses Monroe, along with two girl poets, in her story “Three Girls” to show a renewal of the soul through shared experiences. During the story, Oates uses the narrator’s perspective to show how individuals can be: forced to hide their true self due to society’s standards, distressed by their lack of courage, and influenced by each other to overcome society’s demands. During the time period in which this story was written, certain types of relations were considered to be unheard of and were even looked down upon.
In response to being frowned upon or even out casted by society, it was common for individuals who were homosexual to hide from and even force themselves to go along with society’s deranged standards. The girl poets are enduring this same struggle “in an agony of unspoken love I watched you” (Oates 92) the narrator is tormented …show more content…
When Monroe falters, the narrator acts swiftly by “stepping forward and offers to purchase Monroe’s books” (Oates 97) thus allowing her true identity to be kept secret. At a glance, the narrator was not only physically protecting Monroe’s privacy but fearing its destruction. This translates to the Narrator’s relationship with her partner, if their newly sought after privacy were revoked society could tear them apart. Therefore by assisting Monroe, the Narrator is securing her own privacy mentally by grounding what she believed into Monroe herself. After all, Monroe, being a sex symbol, could easily take part in such taboo activities and easily be kept from being treated as