“SHILOH” by Bobbie Ann Mason is a short two about a couple going through a rough patch in their marriage. Leroy and Norma Jean got married. They had a child which died from sudden infant death syndrome. Years later, Leroy, a truck driver has automobile accident. With a severe injury he is forced to stay at home. As Leroy is home he ponders the idea of building him and his wife a log cabin. The wife, Norma Jean doesn’t enjoy Leroy being home. She becomes interested in bodybuilding and takes classes. The mother of Norma Jean is named Mabel and has an infatuation with a place called Shiloh, Tennessee which is a historical Civil War battleground. Mabel talking Leroy into going to Shiloh. The whole family goes to Shiloh. As they are there Norma …show more content…
Being a truck driver means that Leroy is gone the majority of the time. Which Norma Jeans has grown accustomed to. In turns, lead Leroy to believe that they have grown distant due to the death of the infant. In addition, Leroy states “they never speak about their memories of Randy”.
As Leroy tries to rekindle their marriage he decides to build Norma Jean a house. She is reluctant about it and even says “I don’t want to live in any log cabin”. Leroy does not comprehend on what Norma Jean is telling him, and continues with his plans of building a cabin. This shows that he does not care about Norma Jeans wishes and that he could fix everything with this build. He never supports Norma Jeans goals and wishes, which leads he to become independent and evidentially leads to her asking for a divorce.
The protagonist is the husband, Leroy. His traits are that he is a loving husband willing to build them a house to live in and possible revert back before the loss of their child. At the same time another trait is that he is not aggressive in his approach to save his marriage. In the story is describes Norma Jean going to bodybuilding classes, changing her diet, and enrolling into classes and slowly becomes independent. He believes that building a house will save his marriage rather than his actions on a daily basis with his wife. He realizes late in the story “the real inner workings of
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Takes place in a small town in Kentucky that has a small population will little growth over the past twenty years. These two worlds are leads us back to the central idea. If there is no communication in a relationship, the relationship will become stagnant and one person will fall behind in the relationship as the other makes the necessary changes to continue with their life. I love you Norma Jean, I want to build you a log cabin. I am willing to selling my rig so that we can finally build us the log cabin. I know that we have not been the same since Randy died, but me being back is a new change I want us to take. As I sit down and think about my accident and having a feeling of lost hope, the only thing that makes me happy is building a log cabin for us. I do not know what to think when I am smoking marijuana, and you are working out, eating healthy, and attending night classes. I feel like you are slowly moving on and we are becoming even more
The story ‘Norma’ is written by Sonia Sanchez, who describes in the story that how she used to look up to another girl in her school named Norma. Norma was intelligent, attractive, and everything that made a person perfect. But then as they grew up, Norma started doing drugs, and got pregnant while she was still in high school. She got kicked out of school, and wasn’t seen for a long time. Then after a few years, Sonia and Norma met again, and agreed to get together often. After leaving, Sonia vows to herself to never agree again, as she did not accept Norma as her role model anymore.
The protagonist is Ann who has lived on the farm with her husband of seven years. Her life is tedious and lonely. Her nearest neighbor is Stephen, a bachelor living on a farm about two miles away. John, Ann’s husband, has little ambition other than make his farm work. He loves Ann and is very proud that she is his wife. On the other hand, Ann finds much that she is
In the short story “Norma” by Sonia Sanchez, a girl named Sonia looks up to a fellow classmate by the name of Norma. While in middle school, Norma hated French and since Norma hated french, and so did Sonia but only because norma didn't like it. Norma got kicked out of out of high school because she got pregnant. After Sonia graduates from college she sees how much Norma's life had taken a turn and no longer looks up to her. sonia saw that Norma had four children and did a lot of drugs. Sonia agreed to meet Norma again someday, but then left and agreed never to agree again. Sonia agreed never to agree again because, she had always looked up to and agreed with Norma, but now Sonia sees and understands that Norma has ruined her life. To begin with, Sonia always did what Norma did and tried to be like Norma as much as she possibly could.
A story review of the book. Relationships change over the passing of time as circumstances in life shape a person's way of thinking and way of life. Whether it flourishes or decays depends greatly upon how people react to these alterations. Before it is too late Relationships change over the passing of time as circumstances in life shape a person's way of thinking and way of life. Whether it flourishes or decays depends greatly upon how people react to these alterations.
Leroy arrives home from a drive and finds Norma Jean in tears.” (Mason p. 50). Norma
While all relationships can be difficult, romantic relationships seem to be some of the most complicated types. Sometimes two people can care for one another so much, yet they cannot seem to communicate effectively. When a lack of communication occurs between two people for a long period of time, it most likely will lead to a huge confrontation and possibly a complete dissolve of the relationship. The Break-Up is a movie that shows how important interpersonal communication is in relationships. The movie features Brooke and Gary, a couple which has been together for several years. Although they seem to be arguing about something trivial like lemons, there are much bigger issues that begin to surface. Throughout this paper I will show how
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 not used to her husband being home now and would rather have him on the road again. He is excited to settle down with his wife but she wants him gone. She was comfortable with staying at home alone and now that he is there all the time, her freedom is disturbed. The tone the author entails is complicated, harsh, selfish, and straightforward simply for the matter that their marriage lacks communication which makes any relationship complicated. Straightforward is another tone being described because at the end Norma Jean bluntly tells Leroy that she is leaving him. It is very crucial to his ears and harsh coming from her after sixteen years of marriage. The story takes place in the couple's home, super plaza, and the battleground of Shiloh. In the story the reader is able to foreshadow the outcome as a result of Norma Jean's behavior. Symbolism induces the battleground, Star Trek pillow, Wonder Woman, craft kits, and color of the ruffle. The narrator tells the story from a third person limited om...
“When Harry Met Sally” depicts the ups and downs of a relationship between and man and a woman over the course of twelve years. These ups and downs are also referred to as the ten interpersonal relationship stages. A couple’s communication throughout their relationship, both positive and negative, determine whether the relationship will be maintained or terminated. Although some couples experience every stage from the beginning to the end of their relationship, many partners, like Harry and Sally, flow back and forth between these stages and sometimes skip a stage completely, making every relationship entirely unique.
Elisa life in the “closed pot” of the Salinas Valley is not one that she wants, but it is one that she cannot escape. Without the encouragement of a man, she cannot find the strength to look beyond her life of gardening and household chores. Until she does, she will remain trapped in role as a house-wife.
Lester is not the only character who suffers from this. His wife Carolyn and daughter Jane both know what it is like to feel trapped in an unhappy life. Carolyn is imprisoned by image. She has the notion that she cannot be happy unless everything appears as perfect. And Jane, feeling the weight of her parents, wants to break off from her prison, her home life. She like most teens views her parents as weird and wants out of that life.
Norma’s mother was a flapper so she was not one to hold to the social conventions of the times; however, because she was raised in a devout Mormon household, race would be the area where she would not budge. It was no surprise to me that Norma would also learn to snub her nose at those conventions that seemed ludicrous to her, such as whites not associating with blacks, but Norma’s decision to fraternize with a man of color in spite of her mother’s stance, would bring to the forefront what C. Wright Mills, in his article The Promise, coined as personal troubles and issues. For Norma, choosing to be involved with June’s father would bring up issues of character surrounding the social acceptability of a white girl consorting with a black man, especially when everywhere she looked; society, would shout unequivocally that it was not acceptable (1959). So, when she discovers that she is pregnant, she finds herself in quite the predicament. Norma is a walking contradiction in my opinion. Although there is no doubt in my mind that she loved her children, her desire for autonomy and a name, made it impossible for her to navigate the minefields of race, thanks to the Hollywood elite who would hang the framework through which Norma would
Using the movie Love Jones I will talk about the characteristics of male/male and female/female relationship as they are portrayed in the film. Then I will talk about how different the female/male relationship is and focus primarily on their communication styles. There is some harsh vocabulary included in my essay but only in quotations that I have taken from the movie itself to communicate what was going on in the scenes I have chose to talk about.
Although the novel depicts the family’s struggle as a unit, three members emerge as the main characters. Trapped by lack of opportunity and a faltering self-image, Jim Holbrook works under subhuman conditions to provide for his family. His struggle demonstrates how patriarchal culture oppresses both men and women into ascribed roles based on impossible ideals. Anna, his wife, holds the family together with the meager resources brought in by her husband, who devalues her role because she is a woman and earns no money. As a result of this oppression, she grapples with her own identity, as motherhood and domestic responsibility limit her opportunities for personal fulfillment an...
This poem has captured a moment in time of a dynamic, tentative, and uncomfortable relationship as it is evolving. The author, having shared her thoughts, concerns, and opinion of the other party's unchanging definition of the relationship, must surely have gone on to somehow reconcile the situation to her own satisfaction. She relishes the work entailed in changing either of them, perhaps.
Amanda takes it upon herself to mold Tom into the man that she wished her husband was. Of course, he takes it upon himself to be anything but. He spends every night at the movies. Tom uses the movies as a form of escape from his home life and satisfies his urge to leave and explore. He says, “People go to the movies instead of moving.”