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BOBBIE ANN MASON’S “SHILOH”
This handout was prepared by Dr. William Tarvin, a retired professor of literature.
Please visit my free website www.tarvinlit.com. Over 500 works of American and British
literature are analyzed there for free.
Text used: Ann Charters, ed. The Story and Its Writer, 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2003.
1. According to Charters’ introduction, “Mason writes about the working-class people of
western Kentucky” and has created “a literary style that critics have
labeled ‘shopping mall realism’” (963).
2. Mason herself has written that the characters in her short stories “have got a toe-hold
in the middle class,” having nudged upward from the lower class. She continues t
hat they are trapped between a desire to leave their surroundings/their world and
a fear of leaving. “I’m interested in that tension between longing to stay and
longing to go.”
3. Examine how these theoretical statements of points 1 and 2 apply to “Shiloh.”
Norma Jean, who works at a __________ drugstore, and Leroy, a disabled
___________________, are both ______________-class people. Leroy goes to a
______________ center to buy an ounce of marijuana. The couple lives in a small
rented ___________. Both desire to better themselves: Normal Jean attends night
school at a ________________ college. Leroy wants their own home (ironically a log
cabin) in one of the ___________ subdivisions.
4.
What is the INCITING MOMENT of the story? Interestingly, this story of an
unfulfilled wife is told from the point of view of the basically fulfilled husband.
Consequently, it is Leroy who establishes the Inciting Moment: “He has the
feeling . . . that they must create a new ____________, start ____________” (955).
At this point we ask whether he and Norma Jean will be able to start their
_______________ afresh.
5. What is the CLIMAX of the story?
At ___________ battlefield, where Leroy and Norma Jean had gone for their
“second _____________” (961), she tells him, “I want to __________ you” (963);
that is, their _______________ is over.
6. What is the principal RECOGNITION?
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In trying to verbalize her decision, Norma Jean states one Recognition, that
their marriage worked better when Leroy was on the _________ driving a truck: “In
some ways, a __________ prefers a ______ who _____________” (963).
However, for Norma Jean, the principal Recognition is her realization that she
wants to be ________. Significantly the story begins by identifying her as “Leroy
Moffitt’s _________” (954).
Denying that it is a “women’s _______” thing (in essence, Norma Jean does not
want to be confined by being a part of any group), she recognizes that neither Leroy nor
her mother will “__________ me _________” (963), that is, let her be herself.
For Leroy, the Recognition is that “the real _________ ____________ of
a marriage, like most of history, have __________ him” (964).
7. What are the major REVERSALS?
(1) They go to Shiloh to cement their marriage, but in “a _______ spot near
the __________” (962), Norma Jean concludes the opposite—their marriage is dead.
(2) For Leroy, the major Reversal occurs when he tells himself he would have to
change his dreams. Not to lose Norma Jean, he would have “to ________ of
something _____ [other than a __________ house, his symbol of a happy
_____________], quickly” (964).
8. What aspects of the last four sentences of the story suggest that Leroy will not get
Norma Jean back? (Note: In a true marriage, husband and wife seemingly have
a simpatico understanding and communication.)
However, this story ends with Leroy ___________ by a simple gesture of his
wife. He knows that Norma Jean is “wav[ing] her ________,” but he can not
determine if she is “___________ to him” or simply doing the arm
_______________ with which the story opened.
This is an inauspicious beginning of doing “something ______, quickly” (964).
9. What is the THEME of the story? The change in modern marital relationships, which
results in confusion and a deterioration of the marriage.
List four signs of confusion or role reversals in the story.
(1) The husband Leroy does __________________ (typically regarded as a
woman’s activity).
(2) The wife Norma Jean lifts _________________ to build up her muscles
(typically regarded as a man’s exercise).
(3) The wife Norma Jean wants to be away from the __________ (at work, in
college) while the husband Leroy likes hanging around the ___________.
(4) The wife Norma Jean acts while Leroy simply __________ to her decisions.
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10.
Norma Jean is the PROTAGONIST. Give four examples of how she, unlike her
husband, confronts reality by being responsible and decisive.
(1)
She is intent on improving herself physically (doing the ___________)
and mentally (going to the ______________ college).
(2) She makes a list of things __________ could do instead of just
___________ around the house putting together ________ kits.
(3) It is Norma Jean who finally walks away from Leroy at the end of the story.
In ___________ him, she takes responsibility and makes a _____-changing decision.
(4) She seems to be tired of being treated as a child (e.g., her mother’s reprimand
about her ___________) or a “__________ Woman” by ______ (954).
11. Leroy is the ANTAGONIST. Give five examples of how he lives in a dream world or
seeks to escape from reality.
(1) Leroy has retreated into a childish world of putting together an array of
_____________ kits.
(2) The real home which Leroy wants to build is the outdated ________ house.
(3) Leroy is disabled both physically (by his __________ _____) and
emotionally (by his suspicion that his wife is becoming estranged).
(4) He smokes _____________________, and, afraid of ___________ his
truck after the accident, is thus cut off from his means of livelihood, thereby evading a
central aspect of his marital responsibilities.
(5) In the trip to __________ (significantly Norma Jean has to drive), Leroy
says he feels “like a ________ of a date with an ___________ girl” (963).
12. On page 962, Norma Jean comments on her and Leroy’s NAMES.
(1) Summarize what she says.
(2) How is her comment on her name not entirely accurate?
(3) How may the family name Moffitt also be SYMBOLIC?
(4) Also, do you see any significance in the Moffitts’ dead son’s name?
(5) Do you think it is uncharacteristic for a supposedly “realistic” writer
such as Mason to be using SYMBOLISM in the names?
(1) Norma Jean says that Leroy means “the _______” (962). (Note: From
French where le means “the” and roi means “________.”)
She continues that Norma Jean was “______________ ___________ real
name” and that “Norma comes from the _________. They were invaders” (962).
(2) Actually, “Norma” comes from the Latin word norma, meaning a carpenter’s
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rule or square (and therefore a standard for measuring). Ironically, Leroy wants to be a
_____________ and to build the ____ house. (Note: The word “Norman,” meaning
a person from Scandinavia or a Northman, comes from the Old French word nortman.)
(3) The family name “Moffitt” may be a pun on the girl in the nursery rhyme
“Little Miss Muffitt,” who had a spider sit down beside her while picnicking (just as
_______ _____—with spider-like intention—sits beside Leroy at their Shiloh Park
______). “Moffitt” also suggests “misfit,” again applicable to this maladjusted _____.
(4) Their dead son’s name is Randy. “__________” is a Scottish-based word
meaning sexually aroused or lustful. The baby Randy, as Mabel _______________
keeps reminding her daughter, was conceived out of ____________.
(5) Writers, whether their orientation is realistic or symbolic, often use names to
convey some aspect of a character or to reinforce a major theme in their stories.