Bobbie Ann Mason's Shiloh

To many readers, Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh” is a story that centers around the shifting culture of the 1980s, with a protagonist that recognizes this change and adapts to it. This perceived protagonist is Norma Jean Moffitt, the wife of the former truck driver Leroy Moffitt. Throughout the story, Norma Jean is depicted as a strong and independent woman, and this characterization is reflected in many critical essays; Constante González Groba remarks that “[Norma Jean] can easily defeat [Leroy] because she has more resources—she can fend for herself because she has a job and some higher education.” However, such an emphasis on Norma Jean’s power over her own life largely ignores the many conflicts in “Shiloh,” which range from Norma Jean’s conflict

When Leroy and Norma Jean are discussing the meanings of their names, Norma Jean mentions that her own name is “Marilyn Monroe’s real name,” but also tells Leroy that the name Norma comes from the Normans, who were “invaders” (Mason 370). As Tina Bucher theorizes, these two contrasting meanings show that Norma Jean is “caught between two worlds, two roles.” Such a conflict, where a woman has to balance societal conventions and her own wishes, is familiar in the twenty-first century, as American culture showcases both traditional women and those who do not subscribe to the idea of typical femininity. Additionally, due to earlier feminist movements, women today are more easily able to work and have a family at the same time, leading to more women experiencing both worlds at once, as Norma Jean does in “Shiloh.” However, in the 1980s, such a conflict was just beginning to emerge. A similar disconnect can be seen in Marilyn Monroe herself; while Marilyn is seen as an epitome of femininity, her “real” self, Norma Jean, was a regular woman, navigating her way between reality and Hollywood. Mason’s Norma Jean, while not at such extremes, is caught between what tradition dictates and what how she wishes to behave, and must either fully commit to one extreme or learn to balance both femininity and masculinity, a practice that many

As David Bolt emphasizes, Leroy is targeted more directly by Mabel, whose “references to ‘that thing’ and ‘what a woman would do’ are obviously meant to be disparaging” (24-25). Leroy’s primary coping mechanism, crafts, is seen by Mabel as too womanly for a man to partake in. As such, she mocks his efforts, ignoring Leroy’s attempts to justify himself by arguing that “big football players” do the same (qtd. in Bolt). However, Norma Jean does not escape her mother’s disapproval. After Mabel catches her daughter smoking, she brings up a story about a dachshund killing a baby by chewing its legs off. Mabel likely mentioned this specific story because of Norma Jean and Leroy’s child, Randy, who died when he was four months old. Mabel’s harsh retaliation for catching Norma Jean smoking may be because she sees such behavior as unladylike, hence Norma Jean’s insistence that Mabel was trying to “pay [her] back” (Mason 367). While not as direct, Mabel’s insistence that Norma Jean and Leroy go to Shiloh may be seen as an attempt to fix the two’s rapidly sinking marriage in one last effort to restore normalcy to the household, though this attempt is