The short story intitled "Shiloh", by Bobbie Ann Mason, is a story about change over the course of a young woman's life. Mason uses the character, Norma Jean, to give her audience an idea of how times have changed along with people. Norma Jean, a woman forced to stay married because of "old south traditions", sees a new light as modern days draw nearer. Norma Jean was a woman with low confidence, a house wife, and very dependant on her husband. However, through motivation she changes from these things to a woman who has lots of confidence, to the "woman of the house", and to a very independent person.
Norma Jean had many traumatic things happen in her life to give her very low confidence. For one thing, Norma Jean became pregnant at the age of eighteen. She was a teenager who made a mistake and had to pay for it.
Meridional (album)
Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
Norma Jean RileyDue to the old south traditions, Norma Jean was forced to get married to Leroy, the baby's father. Norma Jean lost her baby tragically to infant death syndrome. Here she was married to man that she made a mistake with and lost the baby that brought them together. On top of everything, Norma Jean's mother was a very dominant figure in her life who gave her no confidence at all. Throughout the story she seems very intimidated by her mother. Her mother "notices if her laudry is piling up, she inspects the closets and then the plants, informing Norma Jean when a plant is droopy or yellow" (Mason 48). Her mother found out she smoked, when Norma Jean was 34 years old, and gave her a really hard time about it. Her mother makes Norma Jean feel as though it was her fault that the...