“Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason is a disheartening tale. In fact, the entire story is filled with depressing moments. As a reader, I felt extremely sympathetic toward the main character, Leroy Moffitt. Leroy’s struggles create a sense of hopelessness throughout the story. At tremendously difficult turning point in his life, Leroy had to deal with the pleasing an unappeasable wife who constantly shoots downs his greatest dream.
As I reader, I began to feel pity for Leroy when learning that “He injured his leg in a highway accident four months ago” (6). Due to this injury, Leroy could no longer pursue his occupation as a truck driver and had to undergo physical therapy. Leroy’s occupational alternatives are highly limited due to his immobile leg. This situation is highly unfortunate. Leroy feels lost and inadequate because he cannot provide financially emotionally for Norma Jean and himself. Despite this difficult situation, Norma Jean shows no signs of pity for Leroy. She simply moves ahead with her busy daily life. Because Norma Jean is not sympathetic toward Leroy, the reader is.
The reader further sees Norma Jean’s lack of sympathy for Leroy in her negative attitude for Leroy’s log cabin plans. Leroy claims to be building this cabin for Norma Jean. However, in my opinion, Leroy is building this cabin for himself. Constructing a cabin seems to be Leroy’s true passion. Leroy had been talking about building a house for Norma Jean since the day they were married. He spends most of his time at home designing this cabin, from drawing blueprints to building Lincoln Log structures. Whenever he discusses the cabin with Norma Jean, she expresses her lack of interest in the cabin. At one point, when Leroy says he will build the house especially for her, she replies “I don’t want to live in any log cabin” (48). Leroy certainly notices Norma Jean’s disregard for the cabin. However, he continues to pursue the project, making it evident that he is not building the house for her. He is building the cabin for himself because it is one of his true passions in his problematic life. The fact that Norma Jean refuses to support Leroy’s cabin-building aspirations displays her insensitivity. Even if she does not like the idea, Norma Jean should notice that this project is Leroy’s true passion and should therefore support it. In not supporting this passion, Norma Jean aggravates Leroy’s already unfortunate situation. Her inconsiderateness makes the reader feel pity for Leroy.
Despite Norma Jean’s total neglect for Leroy’s feelings, Leroy continues to attempt to appease her and improve their battered marriage. Throughout the story, Leroy trys to amend the broken marriage through little jokes and attempts at starting a conversation. He wants to know about Norma Jean’s life. However, Norma Jeans turns a cold shoulder at his jokes and is not willing to engage in conversation. Leroy even buys an organ piano for her, knowing she used to play piano in her childhood. Norma Jean is extremely ungrateful of Leroy’s attempts to improve their relationship. She does not allow Leroy to know about or become a part of her personal life through her total neglect of him.
The climax of Leroy’s attempts to appease Norma Jean comes when he takes her on trip to Shiloh. From the beginning, Norma Jean has a negative attitude toward Shiloh. When her mother Mabel brings up the subject, Norma Jean coldly asks her “When are you going to shut up about Shiloh” (114). Leroy has trouble convincing Norma Jean to go the trip with him. When Leroy is sitting on the couch admiring the beauty of his wife, she finally agrees to go by frostily saying, “I’ll go to Shiloh with you if you’ll stop staring at me” (126). Norma Jean continues her unfriendly behavior on the voyage to Shiloh making Leroy feel like “some boring hitchhiker she has picked up” (127). In the car, she refuses to engage in conversation with Leroy by answering his attempts at conversation with monosyllables. As a reader, Norma Jean’s behavior makes me feel extremely sympathetic toward Leroy. In taking her to Shiloh, Leroy is making a clear attempt to amend the wrecked relationship. He is doing all he can to appease Norma Jean, and she treats him with disdain. Through this disdain, Norma Jean shoots down all of Leroy’s attempts to amend their relationship. All of this disdain climaxes, of course, when Norma Jean ends the marriage much to Leroy’s dismay.
Throughout the entire story, I cannot help but pity Leroy. He is a simple, handicapped man in a difficult situation trying to hold on to his loved one. Norma Jean causes Leroy a significant amount of pain due to her unfriendly demeanor toward him and her unsupportive nature toward his cabin project. Her behavior exponentially increases the amount of sympathy the reader feels for Leroy. The fact that Leroy did not end the marriage due to his wife’s total neglect shows how much he really loved her. (834)
1 comment:
Gray Good, I like the way you chart a kind of mathematically inverse relationship between Norma Jean's lack of sympathy for Leroy and the growth of ours as readers. I'm not sure I agree completely, because I don't see Norma Jean as a neglectful, unsupportive or uncaring person, just an unhappy one who is only now realizing the depth of that unhappiness. For me, there aren't any villains in this story, just two people who don't know how to keep themselves from drifting further apart. The fact that one wants to while the other seems to have given up makes it more poignant, and for me, that's the principle you've struck upon in your post.
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