Theme of Relationships in Shiloh Essay

In this story, the two main characters remind me of people that I know. Jem reminds me of myself because he always expresses his feelings of hatred towards injustice, as do I. When I hear or see injustice, I try to get it out of my head as fast a possible because I don’t want to remember something as horrible as somebody getting sent to jail even though they were innocent, whether it’s on a television show, or in real life. So, when Jem yelled at his sister Scout for brining up the injustice that happened to Tom Robinson I would have acted the same way because like I said I want to forget it as fast as possible or I will dwell on in indefinitely. Also, another thing Jem and I have in common is that we both want to be the

For instance, the story begins with Leroy’s wife, Norma Jean, supporting Leroy during his physical therapy sessions while getting in shape herself (616). As well as the fact that Leroy wants to fulfill his promise and build Norma Jean her own house, even if she rejects to the house being a log cabin (617). However, as the story progresses it seems as though Leroy’s love for Norma Jean is not reciprocated. It is also evident that there is an emotional barrier which neither of them wish to cross because of the loss of their infant son (617). Leroy even admits that the loss of a child can cause a marriage to fall apart, but he is still blind to the fact that their marriage had already begun to deteriorate during his long absences. However, he still believes that they can start over and create a better marriage

Marriage is a difficult thing to maintain now-a-days, and it was not much different back in the 80s. Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh tells the story of how, the main character, Leroy slowly realizes that him and his wife, Norma Jean, are drifting apart. The 80s was a time period of expanding poverty, rising social problems, and drastic economic changes. Leroy decided to stay fixated on the past, while Norma Jean accepted the fact that the world is changing and prepared herself for it. Things change over time, and the couple disagreed on a way to enter the new world together.

Norma Jean is presented as a dynamic character due to the fact that her attitude and outlook starts changing towards her husband Leroy and her marriage. She went from spending time with her husband to being an introvert. She begins enjoying her time alone and becomes very selfish. She was strong at one point and the past just ate her up inside letting it get the best of her. All the attention is drawn to herself and she does not take the time to see how Leroy is feeling or reacting to this sudden behavior. In paragraph fifty four it states how Norma Jean changes into this selfish creature that Leroy does not even know anymore after sixteen years of marriage. "Before his accident, when Leroy came home he used to stay in the house with Norma Jean, watching TV in bed and playing cards. She would cook fried chicken, picnic ham, chocolate pie-all his favorites. Now he is home alone much of the time. In the mornings, Norma Jean disappears, leaving a cooling place in the bed" (Mason paragraph 54). Norma Jean loses her father and son and now she is just letting herself slowly drift away out of her husband's life. Norma Jean's appearance does not change much in Leroy's eyes. She keeps up with her physical and outer appearance but its her inner self that need massive work. Her attitude with her mother and husband starts coming off aggressive and careless. In paragraph 110, Norma Jean's repsonse is spoken without proper mannerism.

1.1 Key principles of relationship theories - Stage theories in general describe how we go through distinct stages as we develop. Thus, rather than gradually changing, we typically make sudden shifts to different plateaus of perception and behaviour.

In Atonement, the theme of love is explored in a variety of different ways. McEwan explores many different kinds of love including romantic love, platonic love, self love and family love.

Leroy's marriage was same one also, a strained one. At the end of the story Norma

Leroy and Norma Jean are both victims of rapid social change. Norma Jean was the most affected by her surroundings comparing to Leroy. Norma Jean had to marry at the age of eighteen to the man who got her pregnant, and in a cruel twist of fate, the child dies of sudden infant death syndrome. This event from her life prevents her to look towards the

Spending time with each other, having strong morals and giving a lot of love are a few of the things that give families hope and happiness. In the novel A Death in the Family (1938) by James Agee, a family has to use these advantages in order to make it through a very difficult time. During the middle of one night in 1915, the husband, Jay, and his wife, Mary, receive a phone call saying that Jay's father is dying. Ralph, the person who called, is Jay's brother, and he happens to be drunk. Jay doesn't know if he can trust Ralph in saying that their father is dying, but he doesn't want to take the chance of never seeing his father again, so he decides to go see his father. He kisses

The African American families in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon present abnormality and dysfunction. Normalcy, seen in common nuclear families, is absent. The protagonist, Milkman, is shaped by his dysfunctional relationships with parental figures.

Meanwhile, Norma Jean’s activities have her expanding and growing in broader ways that let her see the bigger picture. For a while, she is content with playing familiar music on the organ, but as she further educates herself, she does not want to play it anymore (309). She is enthralled with her college class and building muscle with her weight lifting class. She is constantly improving and strengthening her mind and body while Leroy is just observing, and content to stay the same, and when he does go out of his comfort zone, it is not in leaps and bounds like Norma Jean’s activities. All of her

who were in love were seen to live in harmony and this gave golden age writers,

          The story of “Shiloh” is an example of what happens when a person is unwilling to adapt to his or her environment, ultimately resulting in a conflict and an ending. As Norma Jean adapts to her environment, Leroy is unwilling to adapt and is left behind resulting as the end of their marriage. The setting in the story of “Shiloh” supports the theme of the story by accentuating on what the characters do throughout the sequence of the story. An institution such as marriage

“Shiloh” is a short story written by Bobbie Ann Mason in 1982. The story is very detailed and includes many arguments of the era’s expectations that relate to the story. Many of us may question “Was Leroy and Norma Jean’s marriage actually secure love and did it seem like love in the 1980’s anymore and why did it all change? Did Norma Jean just reject Leroy’s creativity and love? The character’s marriage is what ties everything together but is also destroyed within time. In the story Norma Jean, wife of Leroy, starts to grow but leaves Leroy behind. Due to Norma Jean’s pregnancy they were married at a young age and stayed married with fading love. It was miraculous to Leroy that there marriage was still united since the death of their first and only child 15 years ago, since most marriages had a higher risk of getting divorce upon the death of a son or daughter. However, Leroy and Norma Jean didn’t divorce because they ignored and hid reality in the deepest parts of their hearts. Norma Jean’s leaving in the marriage, was predictable but surprising. Norma Jean expressed fatigue and annoyment in her marriage with Leroy however she then felt empowerment to fulfill her life as an independent woman by basically erasing Leroy out of the picture. If Norma Jean was able to leave everything she ever had their must of have been factors to influence her decision and certainly a reason because Norma Jean knew she was the only thing Leroy had left to count on.

In the story Shiloh, Norma Jean faces many dilemmas involving gender roles. To begin with she got married when she was 18 which resulted in her having a baby. Her mom, Mabel, didn't want her to have a kid knowing that it wasn't going to turn out good, which was proven correct when Norma lost her baby at 4 months old. Since then she had been living with her husband Leroy, who happened to hardly be home due to work. Throughout that whole time while Leroy worked, she stayed home like a typical housewife but things started to change after some time. Norma started getting used to his absence, provoking her to do her own thing and to become her own person. For once she had felt independendent like she was able to do her own things instead of living up to everyones else expectations. When Leroy got into the car accident at work that drastically affected Norma preventing