What Is The Stability Of Gender Roles In Bobbie Mason's 'Shiloh'?

There is often a wide misconception pertaining to opinions based around the stability of gender roles in contemporary America. For example, "Shiloh," a story written by Bobbie Mason which is based on the lives of Norma Jean and Leroy Moffitt. Throughout the story, the major theme of instability of gender roles is deeply depicted and exemplified. This short story is based around Norma and Leroy 's marriage and how the change of gender roles between the two change which causes them to drift apart. As time goes on in the story "Shiloh," the characters begin to let physical, emotional and psychological factors change the way they act and interpret themselves. In other words, Mason rejects the traditional idea of stability within gender roles often …show more content…
This basically means that a person 's emotional mindset can affect the stability of gender roles often seen in contemporary America. For example, Leroy 's injury causes him to become unsettled by his inability to play the role of the powerful husband in the marriage. This incident allows Leroy to emotionally get in touch with his feministic side and take on more feministic hobbies. Just as in any marriage, he has emotionally changed after his injury which has altered the emotional aspect found within Norma Jean. Stewart Cooke is a reader who believes that the change emotionally within Norma is the starting point to why she changes in the first place. Cooke says that the accident allows Norma Jean to "confront him and opens her eyes to the emptiness of a marriage made tolerable only by his frequent absence" Towards the beginning of "Shiloh," readers are informed that the couple 's marriage has become the way it has due to the loss of their child at a young age. The child 's birth was believed to be the main reason as to why they had married in the first place. This is a typical reason why many couples marry in contemporary America just as it occurred in the story. The death of their child seems to have ruined the likelihood of why they never tried to have another one. Due to the fact that they married at a young age only because of pregnancy seems to have truly changed their emotional outlook on life and in their case, the false marriage they have tried to make work. Typically, almost everyone in life has to deal with deaths of loved ones and we can all seem to relate upon how that emotionally affects us. This actually leads me to believe that the child 's death and the emotional toll Norma Jean and Leroy had to experience is the reason behind their role change in the first place. Although it does not occur physically until the accident, they seem to