Peyton McDaniel
English 102-04
Ms. Cochran
Essay #1
“The Irretrievable Breakdown of the Moffitt’s Marriage”
“Shiloh” is a short story written by Bobbie Ann Mason. It is about a man named Leroy Moffitt and his wife, Norma Jean. The couple have been married for sixteen years but Leroy has been absent throughout the majority of their marriage. He has been home a few months on temporary disability due to an injury he incurred in an accident while working as a truck driver. Since he has been home, Leroy has been noticing a lot of things about his wife that he never paid attention to before. Leroy is stuck in the past and doesn’t realize that his wife is preparing to move on with her life. Mason uses symbols throughout the story such as the log cabin Leroy wants to build, the dust ruffle made by Norma Jean’s mother, and the graveyard at Shiloh to show the breakdown of the Moffitt’s marriage.
…show more content…
One of the symbols that plays a recurring part in the story is the log cabin.
Leroy’s desire to build a log cabin for Norma Jean symbolizes his yearning to build his marriage back up although his wife isn’t interested. He wants to make his wife happy but he doesn’t know how and he often feels like he doesn’t know her as well as he thought he did. Norma Jean is busy working on herself by exercising and going back to school. She is getting ready to move on while Leroy sits around smoking marijuana and daydreaming about building a log cabin for her. He tells Norma Jean that he is going to build her a house and she tells him “I don’t want to live in any log cabin” (808). Norma Jean is consistently uninterested in Leroy’s wish to build her a new home and the underlying desire to improve their
marriage. Another symbol that Mason used was the off-white dust ruffle Norma Jean’s mother, Mabel, made for the couple’s bed. It signifies the cover up of marital problems because Leroy and Norma Jean never talk about any of their problems. Leroy feels that Norma Jean isn’t as happy about his being home as he would like but makes no effort to talk to her about it. They lost a child in the early days of their marriage but neither of them ever speak of it. When Mabel brings the dust ruffle Leroy jokingly says “Now we can hide things under the bed” (807). Hiding things under the bed is a perfect analogy for the way the couple ignore and cover up their marital problems. In the end of the story when the couple finally visits Shiloh they have a picnic near the cemetery where Norma Jean tells Leroy that she wants to leave him. The graveyard is a symbol for the death of the marriage. As Leroy and Norma Jean have a short conversation about her desire to leave him, “Leroy is trying to comprehend that his marriage is breaking up, but for some reason he is wondering about white slabs in a graveyard” (813). Leroy doesn’t understand history and is similarly confused about the breakup of his marriage with Norma Jean. Leroy and Norma Jean have a very troubled relationship due to years of separation while Leroy spent most of his time driving a truck. The couple has been growing apart for years without Leroy noticing. Now that he is home due to his injury, Leroy sees that he doesn’t know his wife very well and often wonders if they should start over and get to know each other again. Norma Jean isn’t concerned with her marriage and spends a lot of time away from her husband. She works out and takes night classes to improve herself while Leroy fantasizes about having a better relationship with her. They ignore the problems in their marriage so nothing gets resolved which ultimately leads to Norma Jean expressing a desire to leave.
N. Scott Momaday wrote these lines in his 1991 book of poems, In the Presence of the Sun: “In the shine of photographs / are the slain, frozen and black / … In autumn there were songs, long / since muted in the blizzard.” In this poem called “Wounded Knee Creek”, Momaday depicts the aftermath of Federal and Native American conflict at the Battle of Wounded Knee. He reminds the reader of how the event and loss of native life are remembered solely through these photographs of the dead and lost. Momaday’s work represents the Western tradition of artists using their art to memorialize and remember the past peoples and places that have been transformed, built up, and destroyed through government institutions of the West. It is this remembrance of
Bobbie Ann Mason explores a relationship conflict in the short story “Shiloh.” Manson uses a metaphor of craft building as a way to tell the story of Leroy and Norma’s relationship. Craft show how easily an object is build and how a mistake can deform the outcome. In the story “Shiloh, craft building is used to display what takes place between Leroy and Norma. The craft building metaphor symbolizes Leroy wanting to restart his life and Leroy wanting to rebuild his life and Leroy wanting to rebuild his relationship with Norma. The craft building for Leroy to build a Log Cabin also foreshadows the outcome of the relationship.
The “Shiloh” is a song. Saving America’s Civil War Battlefields: Civil War Trust. Civil War Trust.
The Civil War was a major point in American History. It has influenced everyone in America in many ways. The War was conducted in two main areas of the United States. These two parts were in the area east of the Mississippi River and in the area west of the Mississippi River. The control of both of these fronts was vital for victory by either the Union or the Confederacy. On March 8, 1862, a small skirmish at Pea Ridge, Arkansas led to the Union's domination of the west. The Battle of Pea Ridge had a great impact on the civil war by giving control of the west to the Federal forces (Battle).
However, he makes little effort to find another alternative to make a living. Realizing that he had missed so many things in life when he was still "on the road," he wanted to enjoy the freedom he had now, and to take more notice of the things happening around him. He no longer wanted to "fly past the scenery". His wife, Norma Jean, however, fails to acknowledge Leroy's attitude. Expecting Leroy to assume the responsibility of caring for the household, watching him idle around, taking up needlepoint and crafting, agitated Norma Jean.
The Civil War had a very large affect on all of the States. It changed men from gentlemen that went to church every Sunday and never cussed to people who rarely went to church and cussed all the time. Some of the people in the war were also very corrupt and did not do things as they should be done. The way that the enemy was looked at was even changed. All of these things were talked about in "The Civil War Diary of Cyrus F. Boyd".
In the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby Foote delivers a spare, unflinching account of the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over the course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops' movements through the woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the reader a broad perspective of the battle and a detailed view of the issues behind it. The battle becomes tangible as Foote interweaves the observations of Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and cowards and describes the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke. The author's vivid storytelling creates a rich chronicle of a pivotal battle in American history.
Mary Boykin Chesnut was born on her grandparents' estate at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina on March 31, 1823. She learned early about the workings of a plantation by observing her grandmother. Grandmother Miller rose early to assign the cleaning and cooking duties for her servants. Besides keeping the mansion clean and prepared for the frequent guests, Mary's grandmother also took charge of making and mending clothing for the slaves on the plantation. She spent whole days cutting out clothing for the children and assigning sewing to her nine seamstresses. Her grandmother worked with the servants and sewing crew so easily and effectively that Mary was nearly nine years old before she became aware that her grandmother's coworkers were slaves. Having learned to respect these workers, she thought of them as near equals.
Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh” follows Leroy and Norma Jean Moffitt, a husband and wife, and their struggling marriage. In the beginning they had a typical marriage, and then as bother her and her husband evolve, Norma Jean questions her marriage and who her husband is. Norma Jean finds herself struggling to make sense of her marriage, and Leroy struggles to move beyond his accident. Through plot structure and third person dramatic point of view, Mason explores the issues of evolving and changing gender roles within a marriage.
Leroy arrives home from a drive and finds Norma Jean in tears.” (Mason p. 50). Norma
In the story "Shiloh" by Bobbie Ann Mason, The reader gets different points of view and different feelings about the characters and the story. In this story the narrator explains how time and distance can create a gap between two people. It also talks about how naïve Leroy really is and also how self-centered he is. It allows the reader to understand that sometimes in doing something good people could be doing something that hurts others.
The setting in the short story “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason works well to accentuate the theme of the story. The theme portrayed by Mason is that most people change along with their environment, with the exception of the few who are unwilling to adapt making it difficult for things such as marriage to work out successfully. These difficulties are apparent in Norma Jean and Leroy’s marriage. As Norma Jean advances herself, their marriage ultimately collapses due to Leroy’s unwillingness to adapt with her and the changing environment.
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...
The main objects of topic throughout the story are the quilts that symbolize the African American Woman’s history. Susan Farrell, a critic of many short stories, describes the everyday lives of African American Women by saying “weaving and sewing has often been mandatory labor, women have historically endowed their work with special meanings and significance” and have now embraced this as a part of their culture. The two quilts that Dee wanted “had been pieced together by Grandma Dee and then Big Dee and me [Mother] had hung them on the quilt frames on the front porch and quilted them” (par. 55) showing that these quilts were more valuable as memories than they were just blankets. The fabrics in the quilts “were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell’s paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the piece of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra’s uniform that he wore in the Civil War” (par. 55) putting forth more evidence that these are not just scraps, but have become pieces of family history. The q...
My first point is the fact that the setting fits flawlessly. “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” takes place in the night while the main character Joby lies awake dreading the fight. He is lying beneath a peach blossom tree, surrounded by many soldiers, near a church by a river. Ray Bradbury did his research since those details of the setting are the exact same in Shiloh. “In Tennessee near the Mississippi border beside the Tennessee River (Shiloh was a nearby church) at the site of a peach orchard, owned by Sarah