Short Story Shiloh

To begin with, where the story takes place sparks conflict between Norma Jean and Leroy. Shiloh takes place in Kentucky, where the town the married couple lives, is transforming into more a suburb area. Not being caught up with the development going around him, Leroy still dreams of building a log cabin for Norma Jean. Norma Jean is annoyed by Leroy’s idea and says “I don’t want to live in any log cabin.” (Mason 65). Furthermore, the cabin wouldn’t fit in with the area anyways.

Leroy states multiple times throughout the story that he wants to build Norma Jean and himself a log cabin. Hestates to Norma Jean in the story, "I 'm going to build you this house," and "I want to make you a real home"(649). Norma Jean constantly shuts down Leroy with his dreams of building this log cabin. Norma Jean replies to this quote stating "I don 't want tolive in any log cabin" (649). Norma Jean ignores him every time he brings up the idea of this log cabin. She also previously said "They won 't let you build a cabin in any of the new subdivisions" (646). Leroy constantly wants to build this log cabin to fill the emptiness in their marriage, but it would not fulfill what Norma Jean wants in their marriage. Norma Jeans mother, Mabel, also shuts down Leroy 's dream of building this log cabin. Leroy explains to Mabel, "I 'm aiming to build us a log house," "Soon as my plans come" (648). Mabel then replies to him "Like heck you are," "You have to find a job first. Nobody can afford to build now anyway" (649). All Mabel brings up to Leroy, and Norma Jean is to drive to Shiloh and see all of the historic things it has to offer. At the end of the story while Leroy and Norma Jean are in Shiloh, Leroy realizes everything about the log cabin. He finally realizes that building a house out of logs is similarly empty. He also realizes that it was

It is often believed that a story has multiple themes while others may only have just one. While reading “Shiloh,” it is evident that Mason portrays the theme lack of communication leads to broken relationships. Upon Leroy’s return home and his realization that Norma Jean

In the short story "Shiloh" written by Bobbie Ann Mason, she expresses a theme stating that taking life for granted causes individuals to lose sight of what is important and how people become blinded by everyone and everything around them. Emotions take a big toll on the way a person handles a situation and people do not necessarily compartmentalize in order to make the right decision with ease. There are various characters represented throughout the story ranging from dynamic to round characters. Norma Jean and Leroy Moffitt are the antagonist and protagonist, both of them are at war with each other. Situational irony occurs when Leroy arrives home and continues to stay home after being involved in a truck accident at work. Norma Jean is

“Shiloh” was written by Bobbie Ann Mason in 1982. The center of attraction of this narrative is a married couple, Leroy Moffitt and his wife, Norma Jean. During this story the characters are affected by their changing social rural Kentucky environment. In this time period, Kentucky transforms to a more suburb environment from their usual rural surroundings. Apart from their marriage changing with their social environment, so does their role of gender. Leroy and Norma Jean swaps traditional gender roles, which alters their marriage and leads to the breakdown of the Moffitts.

The one of the first symbols found in “Shiloh” is that of an an organ that Leroy buys for Norma. (Mason 214). The organ symbolizes the Norma’s recess back into feeling like a teenager. She says later in the story, “I feel eighteen again, I can’t face that all over again.” (Mason 223). Norma’s feeling of being a teenager are symbolized through the organ, as she has not played piano since she was a teenager. Yet, she remembers it with almost no issues. She then proceeds to buy a sixties songbook, which would likely be music from when she was in high school. (Mason 214). Music can be indicative of how a character is feeling internally. It’s possible that at this point in the story, she is pleased to have Leroy back home, and pleased to reminisce about when she was eighteen, and they were first married. She seems happy with playing the organ, until she stops after being caught smoking by her mother (Mason 220). Norma says later that her mother catching her smoking pushed her past her breaking point (Mason 223). It’s possible that at first Norma was happy with her new beginning, hence she is excited to play the organ.

The log cabin is connected to the next symbol of the story, Shiloh, the Civil War Battle site. Mabel, Norma Jean’s mother, is constantly trying to talk her daughter and son-in-law to go visit the town from basically the second

Leroy arrives home from a drive and finds Norma Jean in tears.” (Mason p. 50). Norma

Blood, Hatred, Slavery, and Independence are all words that come to mind when thinking of the Civil War, however Bobbie Ann Mason is trying to add marriage to that list with her short story ‘Shiloh’. Shiloh follows Leroy and Norma Jean Moffitt, a husband and wife living in Kentucky, who find their marriage in disarray after a tragic accident led to Leroy, a trucker who’s never home, having a fear of his truck and refusing to go back to work as a trucker. With Leroy out of the job, the always distant couple must finally come face to face, literally and figuratively, with who it was that they married after fifteen years of being separate. While Norma Jean is an independent, forward-thinking, and strong woman, Leroy is the antithesis who has resigned himself to staying at home, not working, not progressing, and making pointless knickknacks to pass the time and dreaming a goal he will never commit to. Bobbie Ann Mason uses the reversal of traditional gender roles in order to

The short story “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason gives insight into how a tragic event can change the course of one’s life. In “Shiloh”, there is a man named Leroy married to a woman named Norma Jean. Leroy was a truck driver who was on the road for many years, however due to a devastating accident on the road he had returned home to recover from his injuries. Since Leroy had been gone for such a long period of time, Norma Jean was not entirely comfortable having him around the house. To add to the dismal reality of Leroy and Norma Jean’s situation, Leroy’s presence in the house reminded Norma of their baby that had died of SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome) before Leroy had gone on the road to work. Leroy not having much to do because of his injury, spends most of his time making replica cabins out of Popsicle sticks hoping to one day build a real cabin for him and Norma Jean. Since they got married Leroy promised he would one day build a house for Norma Jean. However, Norma Jean is not interested in living in a cabin. She wants a real house, and as a result of Leroy’s unwillingness to try anything new and productive, she eventually tells Leroy that she does not want to be with him anymore. Mason’s short story “Shiloh” uses different types of characters and well-chosen symbols to represent the theme of how tragic events can either motivate a person or completely demoralize them.

The central idea for Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh" is that sometimes people in a relationship want completely different things. Leroy was in an accident that broke his leg, causing him to have to stay home. His wife Norma Jean didn't want him there. Norma Jean started to become independent and the supporter of the family. After some drama about their dead son, Randy, Norma Jean's mother, Mabel, told Leroy that he needed to take Norma Jean to Shiloh. She said that that was where she had her honeymoon and it would help Leroy and Norma Jean's marriage. Norma Jean and Leroy went to Shiloh, while there Norma Jean told Leroy that she wanted to leave him. He told her that he wouldn't let her, but Norma Jean said she was going to do it. She walked through the cemetery, stopped and started doing chest exercises.

Bobbie Ann Mason's book Shiloh puts across an account involving a couple as it falls apart and as the protagonist, Leroy, tries to understand what it is that changed across time. Even with the fact that he knows that the death of their infant played an important role in distancing Norma Jean from him, his ignorant attitude prevents him from acknowledging the gravity of the condition he is in. Instead of struggling to repair his relationship to Norma Jean, he takes on childish attitudes and avoids confronting her directly. The log cabin is one of the most intriguing concepts in the story, as it embodies all of Leroy's dreams, but it is obviously impractical and most characters in the story express their lack of interest concerning the project.

I think that the setting is not only the battle ground Shiloh but as the south in general. I think the way Mabel treats Norma Jean and expects her to act has a lot to do with that they are from the south. Women in the south were brought up to be proper ladies especially during the time that Mabel was being raised. Also the cabins with bullet holes in them are meaningful towards the story because it shows that even though things can be damaged and go through hard times it still doesn't mean they have to crumble and fall. Norma Jean and Leroy's marriage has gone through hard times, getting married young because she was pregnant, having the baby die in the back seat of their car, and having Leroy on the road for long periods of time could damage

          Setting also comes into play by supporting the theme in the latter part of the story when Leroy and Norma Jean travel to a civil war battleground named Shiloh. On this ground a battle took place due to the clashing of two sides. One side was unwilling to adapt, similar to Leroy’s unwillingness. While they are at the battle ground Norma Jean tells Leroy that their marriage is over, like she is ending a war that has been going on for too long. The setting of the battleground accentuates the decline of Norma Jean and Leroy’s marriage ultimately coming to an end.

Shiloh was different than any other girl that Vihaan had ever been interested in — that much was certain. Perhaps more importantly, she was different both as an individual and different in the way Vihaan liked her. More often than not, women were nothing more than passing infatuations for Vihaan, a fling that he was aware wouldn’t amount to anything. Not that there was anything particularly wrong with the girls he pursued (for the most part) but because dating was difficult for him. For a plethora of reasons. Most of all, what it boiled down to was two things: first, keeping Vihaan’s interest was an exceptionally complicated endeavor for just about anyone and second, dating someone with both emotional baggage and an eight year old child wasn’t something most women his age were after.