Shiloh Reading Response
pallis03
ENGL 151
Jeb Wyman
12 November 2012
Shiloh Reading Response:
I really enjoyed this story because it was about a sensitive subject but wasn’t overly emotional or sentimental. I thought it was cool that Norma Jean was such a bad ass and took control of her life and liberated herself, shedding the housewife role. In the beginning, she was a total housewife and would stay home making all of Leroy’s favorite foods. As the story went on and Leroy was home for longer she started leaving the house to do her own thing. This was a means for her to escape Leroy and her mother and give her time to work on herself.
Leroy came across as a pretty nice guy who genuinely loved his wife but he was a lazy stoner who was stuck on his pipe dream to build a log cabin. Throughout the story Leroy mentions that he wants to build this cabin five times but is stuck building them out of toy logs. To be fair, part of the reason that he hasn’t started building this home is probably because he is still injured. Also, other than planning out the house, Leroy doesn’t really have any goals. This is what separated him and Norma the most because she had a need for knowledge and bettering her physical health.
Norma started out taking a bodybuilding program and later in the story goes to Community College and take a writing class. At that point she had stopped playing the organ (that Leroy bought her) and spent a lot of time going over her writing. The more time Leroy spends at home, the more he realizes that Norma is developing her own life and feels he doesn’t know her anymore (pg.235, third paragraph).
Her mother, Mabel also notices Norma changing and feels her trying to gain her own independence from Leroy. Mabel comes off as a very overbearing mother and spends a lot of time with her at the house. She visits the house often and inspects the house, letting Norma know what household chores she is falling behind on. Mabel also made a comment about a dachshund that ate a baby knowing that babies are a sensitive subject after catching Norma smoking pot.
At the end of the story when Norma tells Leroy she is leaving him, she also mentions her mom. Norma says, “ She won’t leave me alone - you won’t leave me alone. I feel eighteen again. I can’t face it all again.” This quote shows how she has felt stuck doing the same and still felt like she hadn’t gone anywhere in her life since she married Leroy. This is when she truly came to terms with this fact and gained her independence. I thought the symbolism of Norma walking away from Leroy on a serpentine brick path was clever because serpents symbolize knowledge.