CLASH OF CULTURES
Mason writes in a straightforward, populist fashion that some critics have dubbed “shopping-mall
realism,” a style that both roots her story in reality and reflects and dignifies the lives of her Kentuckian
characters. Mason’s sentences are unadorned and rely on the vivid but plain words that her characters
might use. The text is filled with references to icons of pop culture, including Star Trek, Dr.
Strangelove, Donohue, and songs from the 1960s. Mason also makes mention of parking lots, shopping
centers, Yodels, Coca-Cola, Diet Pepsi, casseroles, marijuana, orange sneakers, and Rexall drugstores.
Many writers would avoid mentioning these sorts of pop culture items, brand names, and places in their
fiction for fear of seeming too prosaic or unsophisticated. But Mason prizes accuracy over elevated prose
style. She is interested primarily in creating a true portrait of the lives of middle- and lower-middle-class
southerners. By faithfully reporting what her characters eat, watch, listen to, and think about, she makes
their lives real to us. Her shopping-mall realism also grants dignity to people who have often been
overlooked in fiction. Leroy and Norma Jean are not the sort of eloquent and highly educated people
familiar from the fiction of, for example, John Updike, but Mason shows that they are as intelligent,
sensitive, and complicated as their higher-class fictional counterparts.
Themes
In Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason we have the theme of change, courage, independence, loss, conflict,
insecurity, determination and uncertainty.D
Style
Mason writes in a straightforward, populist fashion that some critics have dubbed “shoppingmall realism,” a style that both roots her story in reality and reflects and dignifies the lives of her
Kentuckian characters. Mason’s sentences are unadorned and rely on the vivid but plain words
that her characters might use. The text is filled with references to icons of pop culture,
including Star Trek, Dr. Strangelove, Donohue, and songs from the 1960s. Mason also makes
mention of parking lots, shopping centers, Yodels, Coca-Cola, Diet Pepsi, casseroles, marijuana,
orange sneakers, and Rexall drugstores. Many writers would avoid mentioning these sorts of pop
culture items, brand names, and places in their fiction for fear of seeming too prosaic or
unsophisticated. But Mason prizes accuracy over elevated prose style. She is interested primarily
in creating a true portrait of the lives of middle- and lower-middle-class southerners. By
faithfully reporting what her characters eat, watch, listen to, and think about, she makes their
lives real to us. Her shopping-mall realism also grants dignity to people who have often been
overlooked in fiction. Leroy and Norma Jean are not the sort of eloquent and highly educated
people familiar from the fiction of, for example, John Updike, but Mason shows that they are as
intelligent, sensitive, and complicated as their higher-class fictional counterparts.
Mason’s style also allows occasional moments of transcendence to occur amid the detritus of
everyday life. Leroy and Norma Jean may be products of a charmless town and relentless
consumer culture, but they gravitate toward whatever beauty they can find. Leroy observes the
goldfinches that come to the feeder and wonders whether they keep their eyes shut when they fall
toward the ground before spreading their wings and flying upward again. Norma Jean aspires to
make her body strong and beautiful, possibly from a desire to transcend the ugliness that
surrounds her. At Shiloh, she leaves the trees by the parking lot and walks toward the Tennessee
River, where she waves her arms in an ambiguous gesture. In a world comprising subdivisions,
stores, and vast stretches of cement, these glimpses of melancholy beauty shine all the brighter
for their rarity.
Leroy’s Point of View
Summary Leroy’s Point of View
“Shiloh” is narrated in the third-person limited point of view, which means that we get only
Leroy’s perspective. We see the other characters through Leroy’s eyes, rather than getting a
wholly objective view of them. Because Norma Jean has become a mystery to Leroy, she is a
mystery to us too, and we must initially guess at her motivations and thoughts. As the story
opens, Leroy wonders whether she returns his feelings of affection and whether she has
ever cheated on him. As the months go by, the time he spends at home allows him to learn
new details about his wife: what she eats for breakfast, the way she cuts onions, where and
when she puts on her slippers, what she feeds to the birds in their backyard. For the first
time in years, Leroy gradually comes to understand his wife’s character, an understanding
that leads him to anticipate her desire to leave the marriage. As Leroy progresses from
being puzzled to noticing details and understanding character, we undergo an identical
progression.
Historical Background
“Shiloh” is rooted in two wars: the battle for women’s rights and the Civil War. Feminism was beginning
to take hold in America around the same time that Norma Jean and Leroy were married. After more than
fifteen years, its precepts have started to permeate Norma Jean’s consciousness. Although she does not
articulate her motivations or chalk them up to feminism, she begins a gradual process of reclaiming her
independence. She lifts weights, takes classes, supports the family, and stays up late working on her
writing. Instead of cooking delicious, high-fat food for Leroy, as she used to do, she feeds herself with
nutritious cereal before heading out to work. When Leroy asks her whether her desire to end the marriage
is “‘one of those women’s lib things,’” she thinks—or pretends to think—that he is joking. But it’s clear
that women’s lib is exactly what is motivating her to strike out on her own.
Motif Music
Symbol Dust ruffle, and Log Cabin