Life Analysis of Billie Holiday Based on the Movie Lady Sings the Blues (Essay Sample)

Student's Name Professor's Name Course Date Life Analysis of Billie Holiday Based on the Movie Lady Sings the Blues Billie Holiday was a great singer and her performance at Carnegie Hall in New York the world remembers until now. In the movie ‘Lady Sings the Blues', the role of Billie Holiday has been played by Diana Ross and she has done a satisfactory job in portraying the life of Billie Holiday. There are various reasons that caused Billie Holiday to become addicted to drugs, but the major ones are horrible early life experiences, problems at the beginning of her career and a complicated relationship with a man. Early life experiences have a very big impact on a person's life. These experiences shape the thinking process and dictate the way the person will act and think in the future. Billie Holiday worked as a housekeeper in a brothel during her teenage and got raped while working. After the unfortunate incident, she went to her mother who helped her to get a job in another brothel. Since for this job she was paid very little, Billie decided to become a prostitute. However, she quit this profession soon and became a singer at a nightclub. This shows that Billie Holiday had a very harsh and tough life as a child and was subjected to horrific experiences during her teenage. Of course, these dire life conditions left an imprint on her mind and made Billie addicted to drugs during the subsequent stages of her life. Billie's career did not start with a bang. When she got a chance to have a debut on the radio, she decided to become a solo singer for two men that she met. Her tour with the two men proved to be a very bad experience and because of the difficulties she faced during this tour, she decided to do drugs. Moreover, after the radio did not grant Billie Holiday her debut on the ground of her race, the drug use intensified. This is because Billie was broken and she lost all hope. All the painful experiences that Billie Holiday endured during her lifetime caused her use of drugs. She used drugs in order to get away from the pain and sorrow that had become a part of her life. The drug use increased even more when she fought with the man she loved and they both got separated for some time. But after Billie learned about her mother's death, she overcame her reliance on drugs. Later on in her life, she started relying on them again as she gave in to her addiction. By analyzing the s...