Mr. Smith
9/25/2012
“Shiloh” In the story “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason, the story is told about a man named Leroy Moffitt and his wife Norma Jean. Leroy had been a truck driver but had gotten injured and is now home all the time and Norma Jean is not used to that. It becomes apparent to Leroy that he no longer knows how to speak with his wife, and as the story progresses the reader can begin to see why. Norman Jean and Leroy married very young. They had a child who passed away, so it would seem that they married more for the child than they did for each other. Leroy continues in vain to come up with some idea to “connect” with Norma again only for her to reveal to him that she is seeking a divorce near the end of the story. The central theme is about the changes that one must go through in a relationship and the death of that bad relationship, about choosing to get back up or be left standing in a state of indifference.(Mason) The plot starts to unfold through the narrator describing Leroy and Norman Jeans relationship through dialog between the two of them. When the narrator is speaking it sounds as if she is speaking through Leroy’s eyes at his wife as he tries to figure out why he cannot seem to connect with her. Then almost as if like a light bulb were being cut on, there is the memory of a lost child there. So we see the two characters in the story that really seem to be in very different places in the relationship. Mabel, who is Norma Jeans Martin 2 mother, seems to be quite a sore point for Norma Jean. Mabel at one point trying to figure her daughter out, but does not like Leroy in the first place as she knows that the only reason that her daughter married is because she got pregnant. The presence of Mabel seems to be held with resentment because it is a tie to her past and Norma seems to want to be able to move forward as is shown in the story by her changing things in her life slowly like taking an English class, and “not playing the organ anymore” and Leroy says in the story.(Mason) The setting in the beginning of the story seems to be with Leroy and Norma Jean together working out in a gym. Even in the beginning of the story, the reasons for why they are at the gym are very different reasons. He is there because of an accident, but she is at the gym getting tone and fit. They are both sharing that moment together but they are very much apart. As the narrator is telling the story, it is showing that Leroy spent quite a lot of time on the road, and it is not clear exactly what she was doing during that time to keep busy, but having him around was clearly not what she had in mind for the rest of her life. When he came home from trucking, Norma Jean spent all her time with him, not the setting of the story has changed to her being in an English class and busy studying in their apartment and him entertaining himself while he talks of building her a log cabin in an attempt to spark interest in her towards him again. He can feel that he is losing her but he cannot figure out why. The dialog of this story between Norma Jean and Leroy feels dysfunctional at times because Leroy seems to be stumbling through the entire relationship and kind of unaware till it is too late there even was a problem. He is constantly talking about making
Martin 3 her a log cabin without really ever just asking her what she wants. There just seems to be this assumption that a nice log cabin will make it all okay, that somehow it will erase the emptiness she has been feeling and that she will somehow endear herself to him now that he is home because of an injury. There is also great dialog that points out that the relationship has been dead for some time now, because of what Mabel and Leroy say to each other. “I’m just waiting for time to pass” as he says to Mabel one day. Even when he tries to
