Shiloh The short story Shiloh by Bobby Ann Mason portrays a marriage in trouble.
Hugh (Zeke) Radford
December 5, 2002
Literary Analysis
Joy Cafiero
Shiloh
The short story Shiloh by Bobby Ann Mason portrays a marriage in trouble. The couple cannot seem to find any common ground and seem incapable of communicating their true feelings. Instead, they take up a variety of interests and amusements, but these are just distractions they use to escape from taking any meaningful action. As Norma Jean’s mother Mabel says, they are “…just waiting for time to pass.”
Norma Jean uses her diversions to distract her from the frustration she feels about having Leroy at home all the time. Whenever Leroy says something that irritates her rather than communicating with him she exercises fanatically or dives into some other distraction. One example of this occurs in the kitchen where she is doing leg exercises with ankle weights. When Leroy pushes the idea of building a log cabin, she shifts from stationary exercises to goose-stepping around the kitchen. Later when he presses her on the subject again, she shuts him out by playing “Who’ll be the Next in Line” on the organ. She takes a night school course in composition and when Leroy asks her why she tells him” It’s something to do.”