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- 12/1/22 questions on the short story "Shiloh"
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3) A short story by Bobbie Ann Mason called “Shiloh”:
http://english204-dcc.blogspot.com/2011/05/shiloh.html
a) Who are the main characters?
Why is there a conflict?
What has caused a severe rift between them?
b) What does the husband, Leroy, do to pass the time?
Are these things we expect of a man to do?
c) What does the wife, Norma Jean, do to keep busy?
Why do you think she involves herself in so many activities?
Which one of them seems unusual for a woman to do?
d) Why do they go to Shiloh? What is Shilo?
Do you think this place is symbolic?
e) Unlike with much older stories, this one was written fairly recently, in the 1980s, and it has references to actual song and movie titles.
Do you like to see and read about actual things when you watch films and read stories?
What is the appeal of including such things? (It has the same reaction in movies, but then it is called “product placement” and companies pay lots of money to have their songs, products, and logos inserted.)
f) Notice the reference to a dust cover’s color (a bed skirt). What meaning does it have if any?
Note: good writing should include sensory appeal, words that appeal to our five senses. It is easy to appeal to our senses of sight and hearing, not so much to our senses of taste, touch, and smell. (In movies, we can see and hear beautiful and ugly things, but we cannot experience the other sensations.)
Use this as a suggestion to include specific details: real places and real brands, visual details when you do your own writing. Think of creating pictures in the minds of your readers.
g) Google who was Norma Jean and who was the man that was called “The King” (Leroy means king). Why do you think the author named her couple after two famous American cultural icons. It is highly doubtful she just pulled names out of a hat.
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