John Gilbert Paper One Dr. Mosser English 1102 6 February 2000 The Second Battle of Shiloh The switch to college life can definitely change people. In high school, one makes friends that will hopefully last a lifetime. Then comes senior year, and after all the college admissions letters have been received, one must face the realization that his/her best friends will not be by their side 24 hours a day / 7 days a week any longer. Still ecstatic by what this new life, college, holds for them, students enter into their chosen institute of higher learning. Do you remember that first break, or long weekend, that brings everyone back to the place where they grew up? Its a chance to look back and catch up on old times, even though you’ve only been separated for a month or two. Whether coming home from UGA, Tech, or even some out-of-state college, that drive home gives one time to reflect.
Will my friends who I graduated with be the same friends who I know and love? Like I said, college alters people, and the first time you see old friends, you might realize that your best friends are not who they once were. Although painful, this is a process that is natural. Friends change, and friends move on with their lives, regardless of your presence. On a larger scale, this is the dilemma brought to the readers attention by Bobbie Ann Mason, author of “Shiloh”. In Mason’s “Shiloh”, Leroy and Norma Jean Moffitt are a married couple living in Paducah, Kentucky. Leroy has spent the past 15 years driving a tractor-trailer across the country. Four months ago, Leroy was involved in a highway accident that required steel pins to be placed in his hip.
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College Students or High School Seniors The question of whether or not to go to college is a very big decision everyone must make. Whichever choice is made will change the course of that life. Without a college education a persons life just stands still, because a college education is the door to the outside world. There is no way around it in order to climb the ladder to success. There are many ...
He returned home to rest and rehabilitate his leg. He is confined to his house, something that he hasn’t seen for an extended period since he’s been on the road. Like a college student, this is Leroy’s long weekend. Leroy comes home to his wife, Norma Jean, hoping that she will be the same person he left many years before. Unfortunately for Leroy, Norma Jean has moved on with her life, much like friends who move on after high school graduation. Leroy would like for things to be the way they were, but Norma Jean has chosen a different course in her life that doesn’t involve Leroy. She works at the Rexall Drug Store, loves to play music, and is taking classes in composition at Paducah Community College.
Bobbie Ann Mason uses literary devices in her story to tell of the impending divorce of Leroy and Norma Jean. The use of symbolism and foreshadowing are both used to clue the reader into the eventual fate of the Moffitt’s marriage: Sitting in his Paducah, Kentucky home, Leroy stares towards the backyard where his rig is parked. He says it looks “like a gigantic bird that has flown home to roost” (Mason 46).
This quote symbolizes that the leader of the home has returned, but sadly, Leroy is misinformed. In fact, he is scared of what the future holds. To pass the time he builds models from kits, including log cabins, hardly a productive activity.
Sitting on the couch he realizes that “in all the years he as on the road he never took time to examine anything” (Mason 46).
He’s speaking about the scenery on the road but I can deduct that in addition to scenery, Leroy neglected to examine his marriage. At this point, Leroy’s marriage is in a irreconcilable state. The only connection Leroy can forge with his wife is when she starts talking about cosmetics (creams, toners, moisturizers).
He also thinks about petroleum products – axle grease and diesel fuel. Don’t get me wrong, Leroy feels guilty about his long absences, but now that he’s home, he wishes that his wife would celebrate his permanent homecoming more happily.
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... place where Mabel began her marriage is where Norma jean ended things with Leroy. These are all examples of Mason trying to make her point. ... cosmetics. He thinks his being home a lot more, would allow for new marriage, or fresh start. However Norma Jean doesn't share the same ...
This foreshadows her relative disappointment with the marriage and its impending end. Leroy even observes that they “sometimes feel awkward around each other” (Mason 47).
This shouldn’t be the case for a married couple of 16 years, again foreshadowing an imminent end to the marriage. Norma Jean, in the meantime, learns to play the organ. At first she learns Christmas songs, and then all the songs in the “Sixties Songbook”. The only thing Leroy does in smoke joints on the couch. He wasted one of his days buying marijuana from a kid, further displaying is stationary and pathetic life.
Norma Jean is tired of his lounging around. One day, after watching Leroy sew a Star Trek pillow cover, she says, “You don’t know what to do with yourself”. This symbolizes Norma Jean’s direction in life and Leroy’s lack of motivation to do anything productive, like try to save his marriage. There seems to be a role reversal in this marriage, with Norma Jean occupying the masculine role. Norma Jean has to tell Leroy to find work. She says, “You have to find a job first” (Mason 49), referring to Leroy’s desire to build her a log cabin.
She even names off jobs for Leroy: “You could get a job as a guard at Union Carbide, where they’d let you set on a stool…You could do a little carpenter work, if you want to build so bad” (Mason 49).
Leroy just says that he can’t do anything where he would have to stand up all day. In bed that night Norma Jean closes her eyes and requests that the lights be turned out, just like she wants the lights turned out in this marriage. Leroy still has a preoccupation with building Norma Jean a log cabin, yet the notion of receiving a truckload of notched, numbered logs scares him. Once again this symbolizes his fear of the future, just the opposite of Norma Jean. Although Norma Jean is the “king of the castle”, Leroy still yearns for insistence that he is the man of the house. He asks Norma Jean, “Am I still king around here?” (Mason 53).
When Norma Jean flexes her biceps she is showing Leroy that she is the leader of the house. Leroy knows that something has to be done to save his marriage. Mabel, Leroy’s mother-in-law, suggests they take a trip to Shiloh, a Civil War battleground. This is ready-made symbolism. A battling couple takes a trip to a famous battleground. Looking for a place to picnic, they sit down next to a cemetery for Union Soldiers, which symbolizes the death of their life together as husband and wife. She tells Leroy that she is leaving him and when she walks toward the bluff overlooking the Tennessee River, Leroy tries to follow.
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Norma Jean Mof fit is a simple, southern woman, but she is also a caterpillar who is discovering that there is more to life than crawling around on the ground. She has with-in her, the power to grow wings and fly away; The opportunity to view the world through the eyes of a butterfly. Since Larry's accident, she has come to realize that she has reached a crossroads in her life. If she goes ...
His good leg, however is asleep, and his bad leg still hurts him. This symbolizes that he will never catch her. She has her own life and he is stuck in the same place. In conclusion, I have personally experienced the loss of a friend after we both embarked on different paths. Although we were the best of friends in high school, when the time came on that long weekend to hang out, we didn’t even pick up the phone to see what the other was doing. Although its natural to move in different directions, it still hurts to no longer have that friend in your life any longer, just like it hurts Leroy not to have Norma Jean.
