Leroy and Norma Jean were a couple that got married for the wrong reasons. The did not have time to ask themselves why they were marrying eachother, it was decided for them, by "fate" as Norma Jean's mother Mabel calls it. Mabel is "a short, overweight woman whose tight, brown-dyed curls look more like a wig than the actual wig she sometimes wears" (29). This is Leroy's description of her, the son-in-law that has only gotten along with his mother-in-law by way of trivial jokes. It is implied that Norma Jean and Leroy were married out of wedlock and because of pressure from Mabel. Leroy thinks that "Mabel has never really forgiven him for disgracing her by getting Norma Jean pregnant." (30). The baby that Leroy fathers dies shortly after birth but is never forgotten. The thought of their child haunts Leroy and Norma Jean many years after it has died, and never stops affecting them. The word baby cannot be said without getting a reaction from Norma Jean. When Mabel tries to make conversation by saying, "did you hear about the datsun dog that killed the baby" she is greeted with anger and annoyance by her daughter (71).
The death of their child affects their marriage severely, as does the fact that Leroy is injured in a truck accident, leaving him without his work and home with Norma all day. It is then that Leroy is able to see how their relationship has changed. He still is very in love with Norma Jean, but his feelings are no longer returned. When he was driving trucks he was "always flying past scenery" literally and figuratively (6). He is constantly trying to show his love for Norma Jean, but does not know how to really. He buys her an organ and always talks about building her a log cabin. "Ever since they were married, he has promised Norma Jean he would buy her a new home one day. They have always rented, and the house they live in is small and nondescript. It does not even feel like a home Leroy realizes now" (8). When Leroy does not know what to say, he brings up the log cabin and Norma truley does not care about it. She is now focused on going back to school and lifting weights, bettering herself. Norma Jean is a woman trapped by her husband, her mother, and her life overall. She only starts to become her own person sixteen years after her baby has died. I think because she was married at such a young age, she never had time to grow up and was therefore lost. Her child dying and her overbearing mother did not help either. I believe Norma Jean never loved Leroy and married him for one reason only, for their baby. And then that reason disappeared. Stuck in a huge rut, Norma Jean realizes she does not love Leroy and never has.
Leroy knows that there are problems, but continues to try and win Norma's love in vain. "As he and Norma Jean work together at the kitchen table, Leroy has the hopeful thought that they are sharing something, but he knows he is a fool to think this. Norma Jean is miles away. He knows he is going to lose her" (94).
Their marriage was glued together by their shared child, but after the glue faded, their marriage was just a decade wasted. Leroy is a man in love with his wife but is not smart enough to figure her out, or really anything out. And Norma Jean is a woman that was lost for a while but is finally starting to find herself.
The end of "Shiloh" can be seen as happy and sad. The author makes us sympathize with Leroy because that is whose mind we see through the whole story. We feel sad that Norma Jean has chosen to leave him in the end and that he is still in denial, formulating ways to win her back. As Norma is walking away from him forever, Leroy "[n]ow he sees that building a log house is the dumbest idea he could have had. It was clumsy to think that Norma Jean would want a log house. He'll have to think of something else, quickly" (156). On the other hand, we are happy for Norma Jean because she has found her freedom. Leroy and her mother were smothering her, she says to Leroy, "[s]he (Mabel)won't leave me alone--you won't leave me alone. I feel eighteen again. I can't face that all over again" (155).
"Shiloh" is a story that feels very real and gets you thinking about life and how the choices we make largely affect our futures.
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Sophie, I think you do a good job showing two important sides of the story--the causes of the enormous gulf that has opened in this marriage, and our sympathetic response to Leroy's futile efforts to repair that gap and cross the gulf back to Norma Jean. Nicely said.
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