“Shiloh” MY TITLE
In the beginning of the short story, “Shiloh”, author Bobbie Ann Mason projects the love story of Leroy and Norma Jean and the struggles they endured during their marriage, while Norma Jean is home and Leroy is out on the road driving his eighteen wheeler. After Leroy was injured and returned home, Norma Jean seems to be try to obtain the manlier role in the relationship by the way she is perceiving her body and working out all the time. Leroy is showing a more feminine side by doing crafts and needlepoint, because he feels like he can’t be himself anymore. It is sort of funny that the name Leroy in French means “king”, which is far from what Leroy portrays. (THESIS??) While there is no meaning of the story stated it can be assumed that Mason is trying to reveal that women are just as capable to do “men’s work” as men are and men are just as capable as women to do “women’s work” as women are. While women are not a weaker gender than men, in many cases they are the stronger of the two. Each side of any relationship will always want to have some type of authority no matter the gender. In reading the story, Mason mentions that Leroy and Norma Jean lost a child early in their marriage before Leroy was a truck driver, leading one to believe that Leroy started driving the truck to escape his problems which shows he is very weak mentally and has yet to cope with Randy’s death. …show more content…
After a loss due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), doctors recommend to communicate your feelings to a trusted friend or counselor and allow time to heal you’re devastating loss. The fact that he and Norma Jean could not deal with the loss of their child or talk to each other about it drove a wedge in their marriage. According to the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome website, forty to seventy percent of marriages end in divorce when there is an incidence of SIDS. In the story, Mason created Leroy as a truck driver who would run from this problems leaving his wife to face reality on her own. When Leroy returned home after his wreck, he was hoping his marriage would be like it had been before he started driving long distances, but in running from his problems he not only lost his child but he basically lost his marriage as well. Statistic show that truck drivers have a higher divorce rate than any other industry. This can be due to long absences from home for long periods of time. This can cause depression as well as emotional fatigue. Long periods of absence cause many problems for the spouse left behind. Which in turn forces the spouse to become more independent. If a man is away long enough, the women will begin taking the ‘manly roles” in her own hands, making them “women’s roles”. Norma Jean has become a strong independent women in the absence of Leroy and has begun to take matters in her own hands. Because of Leroy’s absence, she realized that she could do everything herself. Leroy wanted to build a log cabin to “fix” his marriage. He had always told her that he wanted to build her their own house, but Norma Jean was not interested in that at all. In Leroy’s mind, he feels like he is back with the love of his life and they can begin their marriage again although he keeps noticing signs that lead him to believe Norma Jean is not as happy that he is home as he would like her to be. Mason leads readers to believe that Norma Jean is capable of life on her own and that she does not need a man to take care of her. As Leroy notices things that have changed, he also realizes that his marriage has changed too. Things in the town where they live have changed, people have changed, but Leroy’s problems have not. Leroy can remember being at the drive inn when Randy died, he remembers how he felt at the hospital when he was told that Randy was dead or how the dead baby felt like a sack of flour. The mind is a
In the beginning of the short story, “Shiloh”, author Bobbie Ann Mason projects the love story of Leroy and Norma Jean and the struggles they endured during their marriage, while Norma Jean is home and Leroy is out on the road driving his eighteen wheeler. After Leroy was injured and returned home, Norma Jean seems to be try to obtain the manlier role in the relationship by the way she is perceiving her body and working out all the time. Leroy is showing a more feminine side by doing crafts and needlepoint, because he feels like he can’t be himself anymore. It is sort of funny that the name Leroy in French means “king”, which is far from what Leroy portrays. (THESIS??) While there is no meaning of the story stated it can be assumed that Mason is trying to reveal that women are just as capable to do “men’s work” as men are and men are just as capable as women to do “women’s work” as women are. While women are not a weaker gender than men, in many cases they are the stronger of the two. Each side of any relationship will always want to have some type of authority no matter the gender. In reading the story, Mason mentions that Leroy and Norma Jean lost a child early in their marriage before Leroy was a truck driver, leading one to believe that Leroy started driving the truck to escape his problems which shows he is very weak mentally and has yet to cope with Randy’s death. …show more content…
After a loss due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), doctors recommend to communicate your feelings to a trusted friend or counselor and allow time to heal you’re devastating loss. The fact that he and Norma Jean could not deal with the loss of their child or talk to each other about it drove a wedge in their marriage. According to the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome website, forty to seventy percent of marriages end in divorce when there is an incidence of SIDS. In the story, Mason created Leroy as a truck driver who would run from this problems leaving his wife to face reality on her own. When Leroy returned home after his wreck, he was hoping his marriage would be like it had been before he started driving long distances, but in running from his problems he not only lost his child but he basically lost his marriage as well. Statistic show that truck drivers have a higher divorce rate than any other industry. This can be due to long absences from home for long periods of time. This can cause depression as well as emotional fatigue. Long periods of absence cause many problems for the spouse left behind. Which in turn forces the spouse to become more independent. If a man is away long enough, the women will begin taking the ‘manly roles” in her own hands, making them “women’s roles”. Norma Jean has become a strong independent women in the absence of Leroy and has begun to take matters in her own hands. Because of Leroy’s absence, she realized that she could do everything herself. Leroy wanted to build a log cabin to “fix” his marriage. He had always told her that he wanted to build her their own house, but Norma Jean was not interested in that at all. In Leroy’s mind, he feels like he is back with the love of his life and they can begin their marriage again although he keeps noticing signs that lead him to believe Norma Jean is not as happy that he is home as he would like her to be. Mason leads readers to believe that Norma Jean is capable of life on her own and that she does not need a man to take care of her. As Leroy notices things that have changed, he also realizes that his marriage has changed too. Things in the town where they live have changed, people have changed, but Leroy’s problems have not. Leroy can remember being at the drive inn when Randy died, he remembers how he felt at the hospital when he was told that Randy was dead or how the dead baby felt like a sack of flour. The mind is a