Shiloh

374 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Civil War influence

Shiloh

Shiloh, a story about a family broken apart because of differences, is set in the south. Kentucky or Tennessee, a young woman, Norma Jean, and her husband rent a small house. Norma is not used to having her him around the house, but because of a trucking accident, he is forced to stay at home.

Shiloh, a Civil War battle town, happened to be one of the bloodiest, most heart breaking battles throughout the entire war. Over 3500 men were killed. That makes more than 7000 wounded hearts.

I strongly believe that the entire intent of this short story was the relation to the title. Taking place more than 50 years after the battle, the story has a strong effect that is felt when reading. It seems as though every character is terribly heartbroken.

Norma Jean, named after the beautiful and talented Marilyn Monroe, is a very uncertain woman. Marrying young, she had a child, Randy, who died of SIDS. The reader is told that they don't think of him very often, but that is wrong. Ever since the death of the child, she has had difficulty regaining her grip on life. She is not sure if her love for her husband is true, and she begins to doubt herself and her actions. Living with her mother, she feels the need to hide every little habit that she has. One in particular, smoking. Her mother does not know that her daughter smokes until she catches Norma. Afraid of what her mother might say, she quits smoking shortly thereafter. Everything that Norma does seems to be wrong in her own eyes. Nothing is satisfactory. Nothing can be settled on. Norma Jean breaks her loss of love to her husband while they are visiting the site of the battle. Her heart has finally broken, and she has left her loved one. It might have been out of choice, it might have been out of must, but it was done.

Show More
Related

  • Short Story Shiloh Theme

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story Shiloh, is a fictional story based in the South during the 20 century, which takes place in Kentucky. This story depicts a marriage on the rocks and the reverse roles of couples when they are pragmatically forced to re-engage in their marriage which traditionally stems from them seeing each other on a daily bases. When they where all use to living separate lives. The main characters portrayed in short story Shiloh are Leroy, Norma Jean.

    Read More

  • Shiloh

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is story is told in the first person by Leroy Moffitt. He is the main character who deals with conflicts within himself, his wife, and the environment around him. Shiloh first begins discussing how Norma Jean Moffitt (one of the main characters) is working at transforming her body by excessively working out. Leroy Mallard, her husband, had been a truck driver 15 years of their marriage. Now he is no longer driving truck, has suffered a highway injury to his leg and is in a wheel chair at home.

    Read More

  • Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Shiloh" was written in 1982. Is set in the Kentucky backwoods, and uses characters that are vividly portrayed so the reader can feel like they know everything about them. The characters are common people from a small town. Mason does a great job of putting these elements together to capture the reader's attention. She is writing for a large audience and is efficient at drawing their attention. The target audience is the lower to middle class, and she inserts entities into the story that they can relate to. For example the character Leroy who is a truck driver, "likes to lie on the couch and smoke a joint", and Norma Jean, "works at the Rexall drugstore". These people are average people and a large section of society can easily relate to them.

    Read More

  • Book Summary: Shiloh

    257 Words  | 1 Pages

    The novel, Shiloh, starts out by introducing the Confederate Army soldiers marching through the rain on their way to Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee. They stop for a minute to take orders from General Johnston, who suggested that the only way they might have a chance at winning the future battle is to plan a surprise attack. However, this element of surprise was shortly ruined when a few soldiers test-fired their guns, and again when the lot of them cheered loudly as the sun started to come out. They then continue on as Lieutenant Metcalfe, a 19-year-old “Aide-de-Camp” describes their conditions furthermore. Later on in the story though, Lieutenant Metcalfe is wounded in attempts to retaliate back and his horse

    Read More

  • Shiloh

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    The character Norma Jean fits all the psychological characteristics of behavior change in mothers who are coping with life after losing their child to sudden infant death syndrome. The most common symptoms are anxiety and depression (Boyle 933 par.1). She is always trying to stay busy. First she decided to build her own body up. She goes to the gym or does exercises around the house whenever she is home. Second she decided to take night classes at her local community college. She comes home and writes essays of stories she has read. She never seems to be in a relaxed state of being. These are signs of anxiety. The definition of anxiety is uneasiness. She can’t decide what she wants to do with herself. There are many reasons for her depression. She is trying to cope with the death of her child, her empty marriage to Leroy and her less than supportive mother.

    Read More

  • Sonny's Blues

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    Discuss place and how James Baldwin uses elements of setting to convey Sonny’s Blues’ larger message or theme.

    Read More

  • Battle Of Antietam Essay

    682 Words  | 2 Pages

    The battle between 9:30 to 1:00 on the sunken road gave its nicknamed Bloody lane . There were 5,600 casualties during the midday. The Union accounted for about 3,000 of those deaths and the Confederate 2,600. By the afternoon the battle was taking place on the southern part of the battlefield. The Union had won the battle. The battle ended at 5:30. The next morning Robert E.Lee was waiting for an attack that never came. The Union had faced 12,410 and 2,108 dead. Confederate casualties were 10,316 with 1,546 dead. In total they both lost 22,720 casualties in a single day. That is almost the same amount as the 2 day long battle of Shiloh. Several generals died, including Joseph K. Mansfield and Israel B. Richardson Isaac P. Rodman for the union. For the confederates were Lawrence O. Branch and William E. Starke. George B. Anderson was shot in the ankle during the defense of bloody lane. As a result he had to get an amputation in October which lead to his death. The battle of Gettysburg is the bloodiest war. The Battle of Antietam, only ranks top five in casualties in the civil war. Lincoln was really disappointed in McClellan because he wasn’t going after the enemy, claiming that he didn’t want to overextend his

    Read More

  • The Battlefield

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh there are only a handful of characters. She tells the story of a husband (Leroy) and wife (Norma Jean) and their troubled marriage. Mason’s tale is narrated through the eyes of Leroy. This first person narrative and limited point of view masks Norma Jean’s need for, and thoughts of independence. Additionally, the story uses the symbols of a log cabin, a dust ruffle, and the title Shiloh to reinforce Norma Jean and Leroy’s dysfunctionality.

    Read More

  • Braxton Bragg: Personality Analysis

    2212 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to James McPherson in Ordeal by Fire, Johnston was at this point in no mind to wait on General Grant to attack him (2009 p.247). After being joined by General Beauregard, who was sent from Virginia by Davis, Johnston marched his troops from Corinth to a site near federal lines and was ready to launch an attack. Bragg led a corps of troops during the attacks, and was later rewarded with a promotion to General. During the fighting, Johnston was killed and command was devolved to General Beauregard. However, after a defeat of the Rebel troops, a promotion and command was given to Bragg. McPherson explained that “Shiloh was the ghastliest bloodbath in the history of the Western Hemisphere thus far, though later Civil War battles would put it in seventh place in this respect” (2009, p.250). More than 1,700 men were killed and 8,000 wounded on each

    Read More

  • Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting in the short story “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason works well to accentuate the theme of the story. The theme portrayed by Mason is that most people change along with their environment, with the exception of the few who are unwilling to adapt making it difficult for things such as marriage to work out successfully. These difficulties are apparent in Norma Jean and Leroy’s marriage. As Norma Jean advances herself, their marriage ultimately collapses due to Leroy’s unwillingness to adapt with her and the changing environment.

    Read More

  • Everything I Never Told You Chapter Summaries

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, she falls for James when he is a graduate professor at Harvard. Her dreams and goals a put on hold when she finds out that she is pregnant. Her and James get married and move to Ohio, where he accepts a job as a professor. Also, she loses contact with her mother because her mother was not accepting of their interracial marriage. The choice of the all knowing third person leads the reader to think that she gave up her life to have a family. Except in the 1960’s that was the norm to become a stay at home-wife, although Marilyn liked going against the norm. Another interesting part of the book is that is seems as though she is pushing her dreams of being a doctor and her oldest daughter, Lydia Also, the narrator leads me to think that she gave up a lot for her happiness and maybe that is why is left her husband, but I have not reached that point

    Read More

  • Marilyn Monroe

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    On June 1, 1926 a woman named Gladys Monroe Baker had a little girl named Norma Jeane. Gladys’ mental instability led to Norma Jeane being in and out of several foster homes where she was mentally, sexually and physically abused. Finally she moved in with her mothers friend Grace Goddard who was the one person who truly cared for and inspired Norma in her young life. Grace told Norma how beautiful she was and that someday she would be an actress. But when Norma was only sixteen Grace was married and had to move to the East Coast but could not afford to take Norma with her. So then Norma had to choose to go back to the orphanage and foster homes or marry James Dougherty her twenty one year old boyfriend who she’d been dating for only six months.

    Read More

  • Loss of Dignity in Dulce et Decorum est and Refugee Blues

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    this takes the nobility out of war, and of course, giving the readers at that time period a sense of uncertainty to the title of the poem. The young soldiers are pictured to have lost their youth, health, and most importantly, their dignity.

    Read More

  • The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh Summary

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    How is the story relevant the night before the Civil War call “The Battle of Shiloh’’ and their events? Base on the story “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” is relevant to the battle of shiloh because the author is expression how would people feel about the battle. Also, showing how the battle would be like when they start a war, the war would express how it started and why it started. In the story “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh was based how a young boy ran away from home to be in the war as the drummer boy. The story alo show how the boy was talking to the general known as General who lead the Confederate army to the war. After a few days of war the General Albert Sidney Johnston died and replaced him for General Ulysses S.Grant.The Drummer boy of Shiloh is related to the battle of shiloh because base on the their symbol explaining the war.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...

    Read More

More about Shiloh

Open Document