One of the lines that stood out to me most in "Shiloh" was one of the things Norma Jean says to Leroy when she is telling him she does not want to be with him anymore.
She tells him "Everything was fine till Mama caught me smoking... That set something off." (15) I think it's interesting that she claims this is what brings her to her breaking point. Even more strange is it is something her mother does that seems to bring her to this point not her husband who seems to be the person her hostility is directed toward the most. There are many instances that she talks down to him "Things you could do," she announces. "You could get a job as a guard at Union Carbide, where they'd let you set on a stool. You could get on at the lumberyard. You could do a little carpenter work, if you want to build so bad" (6). Why does she resort to blaming an incident with her mother as the straw that broke the camels back. Why doesn't she just flat out tell him what she really. And why doesn't he let her go when she tells him she is not happy? Any thoughts?
As we talked about in class a bit, it brings her back to when she was 18 (maybe the last time her mother told her what she HAD to do--marry Leroy because she was pregnant). She's realizing now that she wants to live for herself.
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