Blonde: A Novel

Elsie considers what a great foster child Norma Jeane is. She is always happy and dutiful. However, she has started to catch her husband, Warren, watching Norma Jeane inappropriately. Elsie asks Norma Jeane if there are any men she would consider marrying, and Norma Jeane asks if Elsie is talking about Mr. Haring or Mr. Widdoes, who, she says, she did not know was married. Elsie tells her that the state could end up taking her away if she is not married. When Elsie talks about premarital pregnancy, Norma Jeane tells her that she has not done anything she is not supposed to and that she will stop dating. 

Norma Jeane narrates that boys she goes on drives with do not touch her where she does not want to be touched, and they only kiss her with closed mouths. Detective Frank Widdoes watches Norma Jeane but claims not to have touched her inappropriately. He knows he could get in trouble because of her age, and he also knows he cannot adopt her because he has his own children. He believes she is both smart and eager to please. One day, he finds Norma Jeane crying because a man would not leave her alone, and the detective pistol-whips the man before driving Norma Jeane home. He decides he cannot see her anymore.

Norma Jeane tries out for her drama club’s production of “Our Town” and for choir, but she is not chosen for either. Norma Jeane starts showing her English teacher, Mr. Haring, her poems. Mr. Haring is surprised that Norma Jeane, as a foster child, is well groomed. One day, she realizes that she is running late, and Mr. Haring drives her home. He later drives by her house after she becomes angry with him, but he then drives away.

Elsie tells Warren that she thinks Norma Jeane needs to get married because she has too many older boyfriends and is too trusting. She tells him that she is concerned about their reputation should she become pregnant. Warren leaves, angry, and he comes in later and rapes Elsie. Norma Jeane and Elsie go on their last movie date, and unbeknownst to Norma Jeane, Elsie has arranged for her friend, Bessie Glazer, to bring her son there to meet Norma Jeane, but they do not show up. The two talk about boys, and Norma Jeane tells Elsie that boys have wanted her to touch their penis, but they usually apologize after. Elsie tells her that getting married is her best option because she cannot stay with them, but she also does not want to go back to the orphanage.

Norma Jeane marries Bucky Glazer just after turning 16 years old. Bucky works for an embalmer. He also works overnight at Lockheed Aviation. He plans to enlist. Originally, Bucky had not wanted to meet Norma Jeane, and he ducked away before she could see him at the theater, but he soon became beguiled with her. He likes her trusting and agreeable nature. Their marriage was arranged after three weeks of dating.

Norma Jeane calls Bucky “Daddy,” and he calls her “Baby.” Norma Jeane believes that a lack of a husband is what brought Gladys’s illness upon her. Norma Jeane believes she will never have to sell herself like Hollywood stars do because she is loved by Bucky. At nights, Norma Jeane occasionally becomes insecure, begging her husband not to leave her. She enjoys making him lunches in their early days and puts love notes in them, including poetry. Norma Jeane believes that working in a home is a sacred duty, and she spends her days homemaking. Bucky, for his part, would never let his wife hold a job. For Norma Jeane, being sexually desired means to exist. She believes that “when a man wants you, you’re safe” (153). Norma Jeane remembers being so scared at the wedding that she wanted to run, as Bucky was quite intoxicated. 

Norma Jeane starts to take care of a little girl named Irina, and when they are out, she pretends that the baby is hers. Irina’s mother, Harriet, is struggling with her husband away at war. Norma Jeane sews a stuffed tiger for the baby. Eventually, Harriet leaves town with the baby, and Norma Jeane never sees her again.

Eventually Bucky purchases a camera, and he takes nude pictures of her. She tells him that the photos make her feel ashamed. Bucky gets frustrated, asking himself, “[W]ho the hell did this girl think she was? Right now she wasn’t even that pretty, her face damp and smudged. An orphan!” (166). He shows his work friends the sexiest of the pictures he has taken of her. One man, Bob Mitchum, is disgusted and tears the pictures apart. Bucky decides to enlist, and Norma Jeane is hurt and distraught, but Bucky feels free. She wakes in the middle of the night begging him not to go. She presses against him sexually, and he calls her a “sad, sick cow” (174) and thinks of her as a sexually aggressive woman. Norma Jeane runs into the kitchen and starts stabbing at her arms with a knife, and Bucky stops her.

Norma Jeane leaves her apartment and moves into a boarding house near Radio Plane Aircraft, where she gets a factory job. The Glazers are shocked that she will not live with them, but she knows that Bucky is not going to return to her. She works hard at the factory. While working, she looks up and sees a man taking her photo while she works.

Bucky’s friends tease him when he opens Liberty and sees his wife on the pages. Mr. Haring, Detective Widdoes, and Warren also see the picture. All three keep the picture hidden away.

Norma Jeane is signed on with the Preene Agency, where she gets many jobs. She started taking aspirin for her cramps, as well as codeine. She makes decent money, but still borrows money from people, including from the photographer, Otto, who discovered her at the factory. He insists on photographing her, even though she feels ashamed of being photographed because of Bucky’s photos. She learns to stop feeling offended “when they examined her as if she were a mannequin. Or a cow” (192).

Norma Jeane sends pictures to her mother, but her mother never replies. It has been years since Norma Jeane has seen her mother, and she is told by the doctors at Norwalk that her mother is as healed as she will ever be. Norma Jeane is shocked when she visits her mother and realizes how her mother has deteriorated physically. She vows to never allow herself to become dirty. Norma Jeane knows that Otto would want to photograph her and her mother, but she vows not to let that happen. When Norma Jeane leaves the facility, she sees Otto outside taking photos. He tells her that she smells.

Norma Jeane sobs in an acting class. Another student says that Norma Jeane actually bore the emotions herself rather than acting, which, to the student, goes against the fundamentals of acting. The student narrator says her classmates punished Norma Jeane by keeping her as an outsider and calling her degrading names.

Norma Jeane is excited to see filmmaker Mr. Z’s aviary, which he only allows a privileged few to see. Afterward, she has an audition. Her agent’s name is Mr. Isaac Shinn. She likes him but thinks he looks like Rumpelstiltskin. She has heard that Z told someone she looks like a tramp. When she gets to the aviary, she realizes that the birds are all dead and stuffed. Z turns on a switch, and bird sounds play. Z stares at her with dislike, like she smells. Her speech is impacted, as she thinks about how she showered and put on deodorant that morning. He orders her to get down so they can have sex, and she believes Z is her father. Norma Jeane leaves in pain and with her makeup smeared, and Z’s secretary tells her where a bathroom is, but she is too ashamed to look at her own face in the mirror. She gets to her movie audition, and she is given the part without auditioning. Mr. Shinn and Mr. X tell Norma Jeane to change her name. She does not want to, but they decide on the name Marilyn Monroe. She believes this is the beginning of her new life.