In several of my English courses next semester, my students will explore both the LIFE and the DEATH of Marilyn Monroe. I kind of stumbled onto the significance of Marilyn through a classroom discussion. I find her story captivates the interest/imagination of my students like no other. Our classroom text will be an anthology of fiction and poetry inspired by her beauty, dreams, and tragedy. I’m already preparing lessons for works from Charles Bukowski, Sharon Olds, J.G. Ballard, et al.
Below, I share a sample post from my classroom blog. Marilyn may have been an early victim to opioid abuse. Her doctors prescribed her anything she wanted. On August 5, 1962, she was found facedown on her bed- dead, naked and alone – in her Brentwood home. Did she die of an overdose? Or, was it murder? My students will research her life from the beginning to the end.
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