Just an Ordinary “Goddess” Hollywood created the image of Marilyn Monroe as a stereotypical sex bomb and dumb blonde, which captivated the eyes and hearts of many men. Sharon Olds breaks down Monroe’s “goddess” label and identifies Marilyn Monroe with qualities that everyday people actually have. These qualities are shown through Olds’s use of certain words throughout the poem, which are trying to identify Marilyn Monroe as a normal person. This description of …showed first 75 words of 675 total…

…showed last 75 words of 675 total…Monroe. However with the last man’s account Olds’s leaves us with a lasting impression of the way she wants us to remember Marilyn Monroe. Sharon Olds uses a technique that slows the reader down as the poem ends, which makes the reader identify -4073- 3 with Monroe taking her last breaths. So the author slows you down and reveals what she wanted to, that Marilyn Monroe was just an ordinary woman breathing (Olds 419).