Final Draft
May 4, 2012
Time Changes Everything

In the short story “Shiloh”, Written by Bobbie Ann Mason, we watch Norma Jean go from a timid, low self-esteemed person who wouldn’t stand up to her stuck up mother to a strong independent woman that decided it was time for a change. Norma Jean knew that change was her getting out of the unhealthy marriage she was in. Norma Jean is trying to reinvent herself: “She is attending a body-building class” (1). Throughout her married life she felt like she had always been listening to either her mother Mabel or her husband Leroy, She wanted to live her own life and be free. Mabel treats her as if she is a teenager. There are times she feels as if she should still answer to her mother; “One day when Leroy comes home from a drive he finds Norma Jean in tears. She is in the Kitchen making a potato and mushroom-soup casserole with grated cheese topping. She is crying because her mother caught her smoking” (8). that is an example of something a young child goes through with a mother, not a full grown women who is married. We see her also educating herself throughout the story; she wants to better herself mentally: “Something is happening. Norma Jean is going to night school. She has graduated from her six week body building course and now she is taking an adult education course in composition at Peducah Community College, She spends her evenings outlining paragraphs” (11). Things are now changing at home, both Mabel and Leroy can notice the difference in Norma Jean and it is actually scaring them. Norma Jean tries to show Leroy her interest in English and how much she is learning about composition. Leroy basically ignores it, but not because he does not care its because he feels intimated by the fact that Norma Jean is bettering herself and he knows there is a meaning behind all of this that he is trying to avoid. Norma Jean tries to better the marriage, maybe not as much as she should have but she did push her husband Leroy to try to get out there and do something productive with himself to make a better life for the both of them; “Norma Jean reads to Leroy from a list she has made, “Things you could do,” she announces. “You could get a job as a guard at Union Carbide, where they’d let you set on a stool. You could get on at the lumberyard. You could do a little carpenter work, if you want to build so bad.” Leroy basically ignores theses attempts Norma Jean tries