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Life lesson narrative essay
Narrative essay life lesson
Narrative essay life lesson
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Shiloh
There are several elements of literature that can be analyzed when discussing a good short or long story. The elements are plot, characterization, theme, setting, point of view, irony and symbolism. I read the short story Shiloh and have chosen to discuss the plot of this story. This is a great story expressing the way miscommunication in a marriage can tear the marriage apart.
This is story is told in the first person by Leroy Moffitt. He is the main character who deals with conflicts within himself, his wife, and the environment around him. Shiloh first begins discussing how Norma Jean Moffitt (one of the main characters) is working at transforming her body by excessively working out. Leroy Mallard, her husband, had been a truck driver 15 years of their marriage. Now he is no longer driving truck, has suffered a highway injury to his leg and is in a wheel chair at home.
The first conflict in this story is between Leroy and his distance from his wife for such a long time. Mrs. Moffitt has been trying to cope with her husbands’ absence by doing other activities such as: working out, going back to school, and visiting with her mother. Another conflict resides within Leroy himself. He has not been there for his wife and he is trying to make it up to her in any way he can. This couple has been through the loss of an infant child in addition to Leroy’s absence. This is another issue that is causing them to experience the conflicts they do. Mr. and Mrs. Moffitt do not speak of this lost child, which causes more conflict between their marriage together. Leroy, once being settled at home with nothing to do, began to work with his hands to construct or design objects. He wanted to build his wife a log cabin as he was making replicas out of toothpicks. I think him wanting to build this house is to prove to himself and his wife that he can still be productive and good for something. The relationship Leroy has with Norma Jean’s mother is quite different. Any time she comes around, he makes jokes instead of having real conversation with her. I think he makes the jokes to ease the tension and to not address real issues that are present. Leroy has also stated that all those years driving in the same neighborhood he did not take the time to notice how much it had changed.
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.
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.
Shelby Foote's Shiloh is a novel about a real Civil War battle told from the point of view of a few common soldiers, both northern and southern, who fought there. Because he chose to depict the action from these points of view, he limits what can be said of the big picture. If one can ignore that big picture, the book works very well at showing the reader what the experience must have been like for individuals caught up in different parts of the fight. Yet needing to provide some of that picture, Foote has each character present background on specific generals and their actions leading up to Shiloh. This exposition is, for the most part, pretty clumsy and simply detracts from ...
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.
Elements that make for the best literary short story are character, meaning, tone and tension. These four literary elements make your story have a plot. These elements also contribute to your story’s purpose and ambition. The short stories we have read this semester integrate these elements, making successful and literary filled works.
Leroy arrives home from a drive and finds Norma Jean in tears.” (Mason p. 50). Norma
This is shown and interpreted and identified in the story when Leroy and his wife Norma become bereaved when they struggle to cope with the loss their child, death. Although the loss of their child Randy has affected them and was perhaps a major loss and a defining- moment and turning point in their lives and in their marriage. According to the text, when Norma proposes. “You have to find a job first. Nobody can afford to build now anyways.”(Mason 1005)…. After Mabel leaves Norma Jean reads to Leroy from a list she has made. “ Things you could do,” she announces. “You could get a job as a guard at Union Carbide, where they’d let you set on a stool. You could get on at a lumberyard. You could do a little carpenter work. “ I can’t do something where I have to stand up all day. “
Renelle works to provide for her family, yet she relies on her deadbeat husband. She declares that she “thought about getting a second job but [she’s] pregnant and trying to finish nursing school and working full-time already” (Buckhanon 60). This shows her determination to provide for her family. Everyone knows Leroy doesn’t work, at least not honest work, Renelle even states that he “had been slinging a little rock—just on the side ‘cause [they] been wanting to buy a house” (60). Renelle always made excuses to justify Leroy’s actions. She would
...yle that is placed before her. She was rushed into a marriage just as fast as she decided she wanted out of it. With the pressure of expecting a child, and then coping with the absence of her husband for fifteen years, Norma Jean tried to make things work, working around Leroy. Finally, after awhile it seemed as though she was pushed to the limit, and she decided to do something for herself. Norma Jean probably did not have it in mind to grow apart from Leroy, but she had to find herself before she could completely love someone else. After she realized what she wanted, she understood that she could not find that in Leroy. Unfortunately for Leroy, he had found what he had been missing for all of those years, but it was too late for him to grasp it; the change had already taken place. Leroy pleads with Norma Jean to try to work things out and to start over again, but for Norma Jean, she had already begun to start over when he had left her alone for fifteen years. Looking back on the relationship, blame could never wholly be placed on one character. Over the years Norma Jean and Leroy had begun to go their separate ways by doing what was important to them; together they grew apart.
The character that is mentioned most in this story is one by the name of Mrs.
This story reveals to the reader how distance and low communication can separate individuals from each other. Leroy, the narrator, is a person that has lived separated from his wife Norma Jean for a lot of time because of the job he has. This has created a gap between the two of them. After the accident when Leroy has to stay in the house to recuperate, they find out that they both really don't know each other. He is having a lot of time on his hands, so he decides to build a model of the house he promised Norma Jean when they got married. This only creates a problem since his wife doesn't want a log cabin. Leroy is finally noticing that everything has changed, that nothing is the same as before. He was to busy or hardly ever in town to realize all the changes that where happening around him. When he tries to get closer to Norma Jean, apparently it separates them more. During their trip to Shiloh, Norma realizes that everything is going back to the way it was before Leroy started his trucking job. This makes her feel eighteen again and she is not willing to do that again. This creates a confusing situation for Leroy because he does not understand why Norma is acting that way. Finally he realizes that all that time apart has created a relationship where Norma pre...
Leroy describes Kentucky as a changing state. Western Kentucky is turning into a suburbia with new homes. We can safely infer that Leroy is aware of the changing environment around him as he mentions multiple times the word new: "...living in all new houses." "...expensive subdivisions in a new white-columned brick house." "...new shopping center." Yet, although Leroy's surroundings are adapting to the changes, Leroy stays put. Take for example, his willingness to build his wife a log cabin, his wife clearly told him multiple times she doesn't want one. The log cabin symbolizes Leroy's effort towards saving his marriage. At this point, any effort towards saving the marriage is futile. His wife has changed completely. Leroy mentions some new
The story I'm reading is called Shiloh, written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The characters in this story are Shiloh, Marty Preston, Dara Lynn and Dad. Shiloh is a nice loving beagle who was living a very rough life. Marty Preston is a young boy who wanted to help out Shiloh because of the struggles he was going through. Dara Lynn is Marty's friend who also wanted to cheer Shiloh up. Dad is Marty's father and his role model.
The girl in this story is incredibly naive. Her character is very weak due to her inability to realize the inevitable. This creates the internal conflict in which she faces. By the usage of first-person point of view, Tallent enables the reader to realize the obvious truth that this girl refuses to see. The entire setting takes place in a small town, where there is "nothing else to do," inside of Jack's dirty old pickup truck, and symbolizes the filthiness of their sex based relationship.
Her father works out of town and does not seem to be involved in his daughters lives as much. Her older sister, who works at the school, is nothing but plain Jane. Connie’s mother, who did nothing nag at her, to Connie, her mother’s words were nothing but jealousy from the beauty she had once had. The only thing Connie seems to enjoy is going out with her best friend to the mall, at times even sneaking into a drive-in restaurant across the road. Connie has two sides to herself, a version her family sees and a version everyone else sees.