Background of the author
Bobbie Ann Mason was born and brought up in Kentucky. As a child she was an avid reader and her first writings were stories she retold from those fairy tells that she had read as a child. She studied English at the University of Kentucky, MA from New York State University and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. She started out as a magazine columnist and later worked as a part-time journalism teacher while writing. She published her first short stories in the 1980’s.
“Shiloh and Other Stories” was her first short story anthology. It won her two literary awards and several nominations. She has since written many short stories including Love Life, Midnight Magic, Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail and Nancy Culpepper. Her novels include: In Country, Spence and Lila, Feather Crowns, An Atomic Romance and The Girl in the Blue Beret. Apart from short stories and novels, Mason has also written three non-fiction works including a memoir, the biography of Elvis Presley and two literary critics.
She has won several awards including PEN/Hemingway Award, National Endowment for the Arts award, Pennsylvania Arts Council grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Kentucky Governor's Award in the Arts. Her fiction writings are mostly based on her modern small town-girl upbringing, which gives her work an identifiable connection with the modern reader. Many of her fiction works are read in colleges and have been anthologized. Her stories reveal the lives of people from the small towns and shines light on their issues.
Summary of the story and the main idea
The story Shiloh by Ann Mason portrays a couple from a small town, Leroy and Norma as they go through the motions of their lives, drifting apart from each other and torn between what life has become and what they desire it to be. Leroy loses his job as a truck driver and is forced to stay home. His wife, Norma works at a beauty store and still runs their home, hating the husbands stay at home. Norma’s mother suggests a trip to Shiloh for them to try and rebuild their failing marriage. They take this trip but marriage appears doomed none the less. Mason presents a story of unending pain and grief, through the use of Leroy’s point of view and irony.
Theme of endless pain
Mason’s story reveals the turmoil that pain and loss can bring upon people, engulfing them in an unending grief that may destroy their lives. The theme of enduring grief is first seen in the story from the death of Roy, who was Norma and Leroy’s son. Even though the couple never talks about the death of their son, they are preoccupied with the death and the memories of him are always on Leroy’s mind as he retells his story over and over. He also admires children who would have been his son’s age. The failure to talk about the death of his son with his wife seems to bring tension between the two of them, straining their relationship even more. Even Mabel, Norma’s mother, is deeply affected by incident and blames herself for having opposed her daughter’s pregnancy. In the end, the relationship between Norma and Leroy is strained and cold beyond repair, leading to their breakup. Their persistent grief was a major contributor to the final death of their marriage.
Point of view
Mason mostly uses third person narrator; Leroy’s point of view shapes the story and drives in the theme of persistent grief. Leroy shapes the reader’s opinion on the other characters through the description that he gives them and his attitude towards them. Leroy tries to understand Norma’s actions and demeanor, painting her as this mysterious character that is hard to understand. He makes the readers to have the same feeling about Norma. He questions the status of their love and wonders whether Norma is with him on the same page as far as their relationship is concerned. Leroy’s stay at home gives him a better understanding of his wife while also opening up the reader’s eyes to what is going on with Norma. Both the reader and Leroy begin to see the nearly obvious end of the marriage. Leroy adequately tells the story due to his observation and intense emotions.
Irony
Irony in the story reveals the results of the damages done by the unending grief that the couple undergoes. The biggest irony in the story lies in the turmoil in the relationship and the attempt to make it work. The couple goes to Shiloh, the former war zone to attempt and save their marriage, out of Mabel’s prodding. Ironically, this is the point at which the marriage breaks. It is also ironical that Leroy thought that other couples do not survive the loss of a child and had believed that theirs had stood the test, only for it to fails.
Though irony, Leroy’s point of view and the theme of enduring grief, Mason proves that unresolved grief is damaging. The story does reflect the author’s like as a small country woman since it presents the everyday life of an average modern family.
