Himawan Pradipta

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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL URGE IN WOMEN ON DEFENSE AND A STATE
OF OWNERSHIP IN BOBBIE ANN MASONS SHILOH


Norma Jean, in Bobbie Ann Masons Shiloh, is illustrated to be a
woman who struggles for her own life. Being abandoned for 15 years by her
husband, Leroy Moffitt, she starts to become a breadwinner on her own. The story
is progressing as both characters are encountering dilemmas not only with their
own marriage, but also with Mabel Beasley, Normas bothersome mother. Much
of this happenstance lies on the fact that the Battle of Shiloh and the feminism
theory arose at the same time in Shiloh, Tennessee in 1800s, projecting an
allegorical symbol of Norma Jeans yearning to self-suffice herself and conduct
her extreme stubbornness as a dumped, forlorn woman. Here, Norma is
expounded through her principal traits and her clear-cut willings. The stuck-up
emotional outlooks thus escort her to a miserable, confusing finale along with the
emergence of particular psychosomatic infections. These infections may
potentially be emphasized by something which is omitted, but at the same time
included, by how the persona or the voice is involved, and by how certain
transitions occur in such a way.
Norma Jeans responses show how her life has been full of twists and
turns. She is depicted to be the one who tends to involve the feeling of living her
life in a mere solitude under her contemplative thoughts and disgruntlement. Also,
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her feeling guilty of having undergone her cribs death, Randy, for whom never
seems to pull through her longing, is highlighted by Leroys abrupt appearance
after a coincidence that ruins his leg. However, during 1820, which is the time of
the story takes place, the feminism theory is begotten far-famedly across America,
including Kentucky. Many women at that time have come to attempt to reclaim
their independence and rights to equilitize their both standpoints and positions
with mens. In this case, Normas main personalities are implemented in the face
of representing and acknowledging her rights. For instance, at the beginning,
Normas lift[ing] three-pound dumbbells (1) shows, anyhow, the strength of a
woman, and, at the same time, a mere conjugation of defense. In the meantime,
Leroys asking her to live in a cabin, to which she responds with apathy words,
also shows that of a woman. These responses may occur because Norma is jaded
enough being discarded. Moreover, her mothers insisting her and her husband to
go visit Shiloh, aggravates the crisis. This aggravation of worries lead her to a
greater depth of psychological disturbance, tending to let go of the burden of the
past about which America is highly concerned back then.
This ambience is also analogous with what Sigmund Freud has proposed,
saying that human brain has three crucial aspects, each of which is (1) to control
the strong desire with which every human born, (2) to modify it, and even (3) to
overpower both, which are the id, the ego, and the super ego, in that order. In
Shiloh, Norma Jean plays the id role, which is the stage in which human
conducts a myriad of willings and requests that sometimesand, even, most of
the timescannot be fulfilled as a thorough command. Norma Jean, who indeed
wants her life to become independent as perfectly as she wishes her life to be, is
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still less superior than the ego in Leroy. Leroy, in some parts of the story, is able
to modify Jeans desire to be filtered on whether those pretensions are capable
enough of giving benefits not only for her life but also for his. He, thus, imposes
his wife by purchasing her an organ, for which to take his guilty feelings over his
leaving her behind for teens of years. He is also described to be holding an inner
beauty, which the other two characters do not possess, as a strainer of what or
who has become the stronger plea of the other two main personae. The feminine
side in Leroy, masculine in Jean, and imperious in Beasley proves that Masons
people do not seem to progress from one thing to another, but to fall between one
thing and another, to live in an absence bracketed by nostalgia and apprehension,
(Boyard, 1). Those are solely forms of irregularity which occur in most of the
stories not only in Shiloh, but also in other short stories, which are compiled in
Shiloh and Other Stories. Such stagnant modes of indiscretion are proofs that the
notions possessed by the characters are conducted as innocence; those figures do
not grasp or remember fully what has happened before to them. It thus seems
palpable that Mason like[s] to think of [her] characters as being innocent but full
of hope and energy (Aycock-Simpson, 2).
Mabel Beasley, on the other hand, holds the super ego role in the story.
She is depicted as a figure who controls the happenstances in Leroys family. For
instance, she catches Norma Jean smoking, making Norma unconsciously says
that she feels like eighteen again (15) is some kind of transition from being flat
to dynamic. I shall be arguing that Norma says it intincively because just a second
after she confesses, she continues with I do not know what I am saying, (15),
showing that, apart from her surfacial characteristic, she also, indeed, could
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impossibly omit her natural physiognomies as a woman: insecure and changing.
Her continously insisting Leroy and Norma to go visit Shiloh, to which finally
make them go anyway, is one of the form of supremacy she retains. At this point,
the metaphor of the word Shiloh in this story indeed exclaims a greater risk on
which the ultimate option of the couples life lie. Shiloh simply represents a
term for bad ending. The image of the bloodiest war in America seems to be an
implementation as Beasley deconstructs the idea to split up Jean and Leroy. Also,
a dependent, self-sufficed mother, Beasley is a representation of a powerful figure
in overpowering the couples riveting relationship. This is perpetuated by her
argument indicatiing that the death of their infant, Randy, is greatly caused by
Jeans negligence to look for her baby while watching Dr. Strangelove and Lover
Come Back (5). This indeed takes Jean into a deeper level of a state of disturbed
mental experiences. At this point, it can be inferred that while Beasley attempts to
recall her memories about Randys death, Jean attempts the opposite. This kind of
anathesis in Beasley becomes apparent as, along the story, she herself becomes
much more predominant in leading where the life of the couple might end.
The characters, however, are subjected to the condition of their natural
surroundings, which is similar to the situation when the Battle of Shiloh begins.
Norma Jean represents a shape of power and rebellion which has long been
debated and questioned during the 18th century in Kentucky. She embodies the
form of tight defense which is no longer regular within her world by maximizing
the power she already has. Her trope of viewing her own macrocosmos stands out
in the face of the fact that she is only concerned about her body. Readers may see
this perspective that her exercising her muscles demonstrates that of her being
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focused on the internal tribulations, clearly ignoring the natural surrounding
instead. Nevertheless, the recurrent irrregularity arises due to the fact that Norma
Jeans greatest enemies are, to be sure, not the rights of independence she has
been striking for, but her very existence.
In addition, Leroy is described as a representative of the unorganized life
that is likely to happen in 1800s. It is clear that Leroys unexpected presence has
ruined the notion of the story, even from the beginning, and the chief idea offered
by Mason is to make her wife live independently and strongly as never before.
Nevertheless, this is become apparent that, as stated in the narrative, the
appearance of Leroy triggers Norma Jean to make herself feel like a brave,
undefeated female figure, and make herself pretend to become the one who has
been powerful over the haunting experiences she beforehand has.
Leroy has been home in Kentucky for three months, and his leg is almost
healed, but the accident frightened him and he does not want to drive
any more long hauls. He is not sure what to do next. (1)
The use of the word frightened put immediately after the word accident
indicates that there is some kind of a role-swap (Boyard, 3). Leroy in fact
should not have felt uneasy or unafraid of the accident that has caused him leg-
injured. This is further elaborated knowing the fact that Leroy is no longer
willingly enough to drive long hauls (1). Rarely does such discouragement
occur in men just then. Equally, Leroys not [being] sure what to do next (1)
clearly indicates that he is dominating womans role, overriding the fact that men
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are not that superior to women. From this point, the fact that Leroy feels
unsettled by his inability to play the role of the powerful husband (Boyard, 5)
becomes palpable, along with the fact that Leroy gradually conducts the feeling
that he is shy around his wife, of whom he begins to think as strong and smart
(Boyard, 5). Thus, there is some kind of an interchange of role between Norma
and Leroy not only in gender, but also in a marriage relationship as a husband and
a wife.
In the meantime, he makes things from craft kits. He started by building
a miniature log cabin from notched Popsicle sticks. He varnished it and
placed it on the TV set, where it remains. It reminds him of a rustic
Nativity scene. Then he tried string art (sailing ships on black velvet),
amacram owl kit, a snap-together B-17 Flying Fortress, and a lamp
made out of a model truck, with a light fixture screwed in the top of the
cab. At first the kits were diversions, something to kill time but now he
is thinking about building a full-scale log house from a kit. (1)
Up to this point, Leroys decison to do something such as knitting, putting
things together, and making crafts just to spend his time arbitrarily, which in fact
leads him to a greater, tougher risk that happen to both his own marriage and his
own life. His doing those all for fun indeed takes him to a choice with which he
agreed to build a log-cabin, which Norma Jean disagrees. The reckless
determination is an impractical idea, (Boyard, 3) which the cabin in fact
symbolizes his marriage of the endless dilemmas and takes him to his ultimate
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divorce. His tendency to show his ego in the story countered by that of Mabel, is,
among other crucial parts, the leaping stone as the story departs. For instance, the
disgust feeling that Beasley implements by saying that Leroys knitting is what a
woman would do (5) , shows that of the super ego, another role-swap.
The marriage that has been strived for by the couple is finally
encountering its crisis peak (Simpson, 2). Moreover, the idea of Leroys
wanting to make a log cabin is obviously juxtaposed by that of Norma Jean who
tends to have given up on her marriage (Simpson, 4). In fact, Jean has already
planned his decision to leave Leroy from the beginning, but she is not sure enough
whether it is a good leap to start off to continue her life. Her being in between of
her husbands existence makes her as if she is progressively losing her ways of
life, while, as a matter of fact, she still needs guidance and affection. For instance,
her crying being caught smoking by her mother, about which she expresses her
pent-up feelings to Leroy, shows that of a weakness she hides from people around
her. Reader will likely to be surprised knowing that she finally puts herself out as
before recognized as the one who has been all easily-pestered of any shortcoming.
The shortcoming is, somehow, only the stage of Normas microcosmic problem
of mentality, (Simpson, 7) as Jean thinks that being eighteen is the age when
somebody undergoes her crucial stage of not being capable of choosing what is
right or wrong. Indirectly, readers may put various profound perspectives of
Normas state of mentality as the freedom rights are implemented within Normas
mind. It is inveitable knowing that a woman who happens to have certain
disturbed, deep-constructed psychological views, is as twice as likely to be prone
to have particular perspectives claiming that her existence is to be acknowledged.
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Finally, Shiloh is ended as Norma Jean waves an ambiguous gesture by
waving her hand to Leroy in an exclaim of disgust (Carpenter, 5). Moreover,
her signalling with her hand is another configuration of the good-bye expression
for Leroy as well as for her miserable life, by looking out the Tennessee River
before her. This simply denotes that the crucial point of the freedom is underlain
through Jeans appetence of her exhaustion which derides her continously-
haunting life. More to the point, Jeans plung[ing] herself backward
(Carpenter, 9) into the river is inevitably erroneous since the story is left hanging
at the ending indeed. At the same time, Leroys feeling guilty and empathic of his
being overconfident to self-assuredly say that Randys death at a very early age
will not affect his marriage with Norma, but, in the end, turns out wrong.


Works Cited

Aycock-Simpson, Judy. 1989. "Bobbie Ann Mason's Portrayal of Modern
Western Kentucky". Border States on Line: Tennessee State University.
Barry, Peter. 2002. "Theory before Theory: Liberal Humanism". Beginning
Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory.
Boyard, Anatole. 1982. Books of the Times. Kentucky.
Dictionary, Editors of. 2000. The American Heritage Dictionary of English
Language, Fourth Edition.
Genette, Gerrard. 1990. Narrative Discourse. French: Cornell University Press.
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Mason, Bobbie Ann. 1982. "Shiloh". In Shiloh and Other Stories. Harper Row.
Wilhelm, A. E. 1987. "Private Rituals: Coping with Change in the Fiction of
Bobbie Ann Mason". In Midwest Quarterly (pp. 271 - 282).