SRJ #2 Oates

"Three Girls" is not simply the story of a chance encounter with the famed Marilyn Monroe but instead is something of a love story; not just love between two people but for a shared love of  literary art. Set in a gloss less used books store, "Strand Used Books" seemingly represents a safe haven for where unconventional women of that time can immerse themselves in the innate anonymity of the place while simultaneously seeking forgotten treasures within the piles of bound and frayed pages. Oates tells two stories in one: the first, of an actress the two "girl-poets" had previously believed could not possibly have anything in common with themselves and the second, of a young romance between the two women who play guardians to the actress in such an unlikely place. However, perhaps the most powerful element within the story is the underlying tone of society's (at the time) disdain for the intellectual properties inherent in educated women.
  The era in which the story takes place eludes to a collective societal belief that the stereotypical, seen-and-not-heard, type of woman was far more acceptable then the polar opposite of whom the first-person narrator describes herself as being. It is hardly a time where tolerance and encouragement is shown to many women who choose to freely and eloquently express themselves in any way other than the norm of the time. This era and societal belief system makes the mere presence of Marilyn Monroe in such a place even more powerful, not because of who she is but because of who she represents.
  Marilyn Monroe, for the majority of society at the time, represents the purely physical qualities cherished by Hollywood and most of America for that era (and, unfortunately, for our era too sometimes). But she also represents something even more powerful to the two girls who find her just as enthralled by those dusty books as they themselves have been for some time. For the two girls, she represents a connection to a society they had previously assumed to be unattainable or even overrated or unwanted. There was an actress, celebrated for her outward beauty and charm, who simultaneously possessed remarkably similar interests in poetry and other literary works. Moved by this newly discovered commonality, the two girls defend her identity and right to be in such a place as if defending their own right to there, or their right to be "unconventional" or different.
  Oates' message to the reader is one of validation. Marilyn Monroe's presence gives validity to the struggle of a gender in a seemingly ignorant and often intolerant era. The shared encounter gives validity to the girls' sense of who they are and what they intend to do with their lives. And just in case no one believes them, they have the "Selected Poems of Marianne Moore" which validates not only that Marilyn Monroe was indeed there, but that female authors could also one day find their own book of written art among the classic works of old, untidy masterpieces kept at all but forgotten bookstores.