Normas Struggle for Identity in Shiloh - Essay Example

A Critical Analysis of Norma’s Struggle for Identity in “Shiloh” In the story, “Shiloh”, Bobbie Ann Mason’s protagonist, Norma Jean appears to be one of those women who want to assert their identity through their independent choices and actions. Norma gradually turns away from her the traditional womanhood and gender roles of maintaining house and hearth, and rearing children. Even she moves to free herself from womanly physical weakness by physical activities. By these activities, she attempts to assert her ‘identity’ or ‘being’ as a ‘doer’. In the story, Bobby Ann Mason successfully makes use of ‘conflict’ and ‘symbolism’ in order to work out this theme of a woman’s quest for independence and identity. In “Shiloh”, Norma appears to be in conflict mainly with two characters: Mabel Beasley and Leroy. Indeed, her quest for ‘identity’ starts with her conflict with Leroy’s decision to stay home. But her conflict with her mother, Mabel, helps the readers to perceive the nature of her struggle for identity. She begins to view Leroy’s presence as the mutilation of her freedom and gradually, struggles for a greater and more complete one. She further comes into conflict with Leroy’s desire to build a ‘cabin log’ which effectively symbolizes an array of multiple things and ideas such as patriarchal authority, power, control, women’s imprisonment, womanhood (in the negative sense), etc. In the story, whereas ‘Shiloh’ effectively symbolizes the ‘battle of sexes’, the ‘cabin log’ shows the distance between the two opponents. From the very beginning of the story, Norma struggles silently for an identity or ‘being’. During her childhood, she has strictly been controlled by her authoritative mother, Mabel, who also forced her to take the child. Even her marriage and subsequent childbirth further mutilate her freedom. After her marriage, Leroy has overpowered her because of his socially-acknowledged breadwinner status. In fact, Mabel and Leroy can be considered as the mirror image of each other. Norma views both of them as the same controlling persona: “She won’t leave me alone-you won’t leave me alone. I feel eighteen again. I can’t face that over again.” (Mason 6) Once she gets the chance to spread her wings after Leroy’s accident, she begins to make the best use of her freedom: “Something is happening. Norma Jean is going to night school. She has graduated from her six-week body-building course and now is talking an adult-education course in composition at Paducah Com. College.” (Mason 5) She goes into conflict with both of them and startled them by her independent activities. Going against the patriarchal expectation that a woman should be loyal and devoted to their husbands’ households, Norma chooses to construct self-identity as an independent ‘doer’. According to G.O. Morphew, Norma is a “downhome feminist, [a woman who simply wants] more breathing space in [her] relationship with [her] man (41). In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator says that Norma has started practicing pectorals. He further says that “she lifts three-pound dumbbells to warm up, then progresses to a twenty-pound barbell. Norma with her pose as ‘standing with her legs apart’ seems to Leroy as a “wonder man” (Mason 3). Obviously, if Mason is considered as the representative of the male-dominated society, his reaction to Norma’s pectorals can be considered as the patriarchy’s reaction women’s desire to build up ‘muscle’ which is supposed to be so unnecessary for a woman under the safeguard of her husband. But Norma’s ‘pectorals symbolizes a woman’s self-awareness of his physical existence. Her move to “thirty pound barbell” marks her progress in self-assessment. Her growing awareness of her physical ability encourages to go, more assertively, into conflict with her husband’s to build a new ‘log cabin’. Before Leroy became disabled, Norma’s role was that of a traditional women. But later, she gradually gains the perception that it is a man’s physical strength which endows the authority over his female counterpart. Indeed, the ‘log cabin’ serves as a symbol of male power and control over women. Hence, it can be considered as an extended metaphor of women’s imprisonment in their husbands’ house. After the disablement, Leroy starts to stay at home. When he feels that he is no more than a stranger in the house, he wants to start their marital relationship afresh. But he fails to perceive that he has never been a man of acquaintance to Norma. He has never understand and Norma’s feelings for him. In her life, he had been a mere bread-giver whom she should keep pleased at any cost. But after the accident, Leroy, stripped off his bread-earner, is nothing more than a “king” without crown. Being alarmed by the distance between him and Norma, Leroy wants to build a new log cabin. He wants to start everything afresh. He requests Norma to help him building the cabin: “You and me together could lift those logs. Its just like lifting weights” (Mason 7). But Norma refuses to participate in the construction of the ‘cabin log’. It shows that Norma does not want to renew their relationship. She does not want anymore to see herself imprisoned within the purview of patriarchal society. Though, at first, Leroy fails to understand what Norma really wants, his experience at Shiloh soon makes him aware of the gap between him and her wife. Seeing the ‘Cabin log’, he soon learns the gap between them is one which exist between the master and a slave. Indeed, the reason why she wants to keep herself away from her husband who seems to be helpful is that she is tired of the choking control which her seems to impose on her. Yet it is remarkable that her refusal to comply with the female identity can be considered as her rebellion against the society-imposed female-identity. The ‘cabin log’ is also an extended metaphor of their marriage and Norma’s refusal to build it again is her refusal to comply with the patriarchy-imposed control on a woman’s through the institution of marriage. Works Cited Mason, Bobbie Ann. Shiloh and Other Stories. New York: Harper, 1982. Morphew, G.O. "Downhome Feminists in Shiloh and Other Stories." Southern Literary Journal 21.2 (1989): 41-49. Read More