Bobbie Ann Mason’s short story “Shiloh,” focuses on the lives of Norma Jean and Leroy, a couple whose marriage plundered after the death of their four month of baby, Randy. When Leroy comes back home for an extensive stay after a brutal tractor-trailer accident, he is confused by the lack of affection and emotional shunning shown to him by his wife Norma Jean. No matter what Leroy does for Norma Jean or what he may try and say, her mind is elsewhere. She is distraught, stressed, and worn out; there is nothing Leroy can do to fix her pain. Although Leroy and Norma Jean aimed to stay together and beat the statistics of couples who split-up after the death of a child, Norma Jean realizes that she wants to leave Leroy. As he reflects on their lives together and what they have been through, Leroy realizes that “the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him” (549).
The theme of this story is exposed through Mason’s extravagant use of characterization: sometimes love cannot fix everything. When describing both Norma Jean and Leroy, Mason reveals underlying messages about whom each character is and both of their weaknesses. These weaknesses pertain to their marriage and their personal struggles. Readers are first introduced to Norma Jean as she is “working on her pectorals. She lifts three-pound dumbbells to warm up, then progresses to a twenty-pound barbell. Standing with her legs apart, she reminds Leroy of Wonder Woman” (539). This opening description of Norma Jean tells the reader a lot about her from the get go. Although she is trying to build strength physically, this scene makes the reader think that there may be more to this image than Norma Jean just working out. As the reader reads on, he/she will begin to pick up on the fact that Norma Jean is working out for numerous reasons. Yes, she is working out to stay in shape so that she can try her best to avoid injury and build a strong body, but Mason is also trying to express another factor to the reader. Norma Jean is trying to build both emotional and mental strength as well as physical strength. The death of her four-month-old baby was very tragic for her and the underlying message of her trying to build strength physically is also a cover to build herself back together emotionally and mentally. She does not want anything else to hurt her the way that the death of her child hurt her so she feels that if she becomes physically strong she can prevent any kind of hurt. Norma Jean is trying to be strong for herself and for her marriage. It is an interesting way to reveal this to the reader the way Mason does because it is not an easy concept to pick up on. After reading the story once or twice, one will be able to see the connection between building the physical strength and the emotional strength.
Leroy is also described in such a way that one can read into the parallels between his character and what is actually happening in the story. His injury to his leg symbolizes his permanent hurt over the loss of his son and the damage the failing of his marriage does to him. Although Leroy got into an accident that did not directly involve either Randy or Norma Jean, he will always have the hurt, he will never be able to piece back together his leg to work right; this is the connection and symbolism Mason is revealing to her readers between his life and his accident. Another factor in correlation with the theme of this story that is portrayed by Leroy’s character is that no matter what he tries to do for Norma Jean, it is not enough, it never will be. He wanted to build Norma Jean a new house, something that is every woman’s dream one would think. But Norma Jean does not want anything to do with what Leroy has to say about the house and wants no parts of it. Even the fact of Leroy being home all the time, which gives them the opportunity to re-kindle their marriage and start all over again, seems to be no interest of Norma Jean’s. All of these strange courses of events confuse Leroy and make him question his wife. It is not until the end of the story when Norma Jean actually leaves him that he realizes love was not enough, it could not fix her broken heart and nurse her back together.
The setting is also a very significant asset to the story. Norma Jean and Leroy live in a rented home, nothing that is stable, nothing that is always going to be theirs: “It does not even feel like a home” (540). In their backyard is Leroy’s old, broken truck that looks “like a gigantic bird that has flown home to roost” (539). All of this broken scenery resembles the hearts of Leroy and Norma Jane and the destruction of their marriage that has built up over the years. The scene where Norma Jean tells Leroy that she wants to leave him also resembles their lifestyle: a battlefield. While at this battlefield in Shiloh, history was made: “Confederates’ daring attack on the Union camps…where Mabel and Jet Beasley were married…then Norma Jean was born, and then she married Leroy and they had a baby, which was lost, and now Leroy and Norma Jean are here at the same battleground” (548). The ending setting of this story being set at Shiloh is a crucial necessity to portray to the reader. Shiloh, in a way, is the history of Leroy and his wife’s lives. Critical moments leading Norma and Leroy to where they were at that exact moment in Shiloh, happened on that battlefield. It would only be fit for the author to construct such an event with such a parallel to a battlefield, on a battlefield. Love, in fact, is a battlefield.
One piece of imagery in particular stands out in this story: the log cabin Leroy wants to build for Norma Jean. As stated earlier on in this close reading, Leroy and Norma Jean do not have a very nice house and Leroy has been itching to build Norma Jean a log cabin for quite some time. Although she refuses each time the subject is brought up, he continues to push his luck with the situation because he does not seem to understand why Norma Jean would not want a brand new house, one they can call their own. It is not until the end of the story that Leroy realizes why she would detest such a house: “It occurs to him that building a house of logs is similarly empty - too simple” (549). Leroy realizes that just like everything else that he has done in his marriage, it would be easy work. No true effort would be put forth to just build a log cabin. This imagery metaphorically resembles the lack of effort he has put into his marriage. The emptiness felt by Norma Jean would most surely not diminish in a log cabin, but increase. The emptiness the log cabin portrays in this story is the imagery in which the Mason wants the reader to pick up on.
Bobbie Ann Mason does a very good job with the organization of this story as well. In the beginning, Mason introduces the characters physically and also reveals some personal history of the characters through their recollections on their lives. As the reader reads on, the happening events continue to build up, making the reader anticipate when the climax of the story is going to happen. Personally, I liked having the climax be at the very end of the story. By doing that, it puts the reader on the edge of his/her seat in astonishment, completely shocked at what is going on so close to the end of the story. It makes the reader want the story to pro-long so that he/she can find out what actually happens and leaves him/her pondering about such late events even after he/she puts the book down. This, to me, is a very clever tool used by the author.
The final element to be discussed in regards to this short story is the point of view. This story is told in the limited omniscient point of view. With a story being told in this point of view, there are both good and bad sides. The good sides of this story being told in limited omniscient point of view is that readers do get to indulge into the true thoughts and feelings of one of the main characters, Leroy. The story is being told through Leroy’s character and readers get to see his perspective on all of the events that take place. This, I do feel, was a success to the story “Shiloh,” because a sort of empathetic feeling towards Leroy grows in the reader as he/she reads through the story. One feels bad for Leroy and his failing marriage, and Leroy in the end, is the character that gets left. The only negative side to the limited omniscient point of view is that readers do not get the opportunity to have the intimate relationship and understanding with any of the other characters in the story as they do with the character that is telling the story. In regards to this story, it would have been interesting to actually see what was going on inside of Norma Jean’s thoughts and feelings as much as readers were exposed to Leroy’s thoughts and feelings.
In conclusion, after reading this close reading, one should be able to better understand the story and the reasoning behind it. The story “Shiloh” is a very satisfying reading to its reader. It has many of the necessary qualities needed for the success of a short story.