Personality Types in "Shiloh"

This began as a comment regarding Ryan’s post but exploded into a blog post of its own. Ryan’s smart point that "Leroy basically lives in his own history" is very intriguing. I definitely agree and would further argue that because Leroy is essentially stuck in the past, he does not know how to create a future with Norma Jean. I'm tempted to tie Leroy’s being stuck in his own history to his personality type and preferences that go along with that type. People with the sensing (S)preference tend to be present-focused, constantly connecting the present to the past in order to make sense of what's happening now; while people with the intuitive (N) preference tend to be very future-focused, sometimes to the point that they don't focus on the present at all.

I would argue that Norma Jean has an intuitive preference. Norma Jean displays this preference from the instant Mason introduces us to her: “’I’d give anything if I could just get these muscles to where they’re real hard…Feel this arm. It’s not as hard as the other one” (1). Now, on the one hand, Norma Jean’s discontent can be attributed to a desire for perfection. But on the other, it’s clear that she is not satisfied with her current level of fitness. She is looking ahead to the future.

It seems to me that Leroy has a sensing preference. As Ryan has pointed out, Leroy is constantly thinking about the past – comparing the population to what it was “twenty years before” (3), remembering in startling detail the night that Randy died (4-5), and connecting his and Norma Jean’s life all the way back to the Battle of Shiloh (15-16). Thus Leroy, probably a senser, seems to be focused on bringing the past- a past of log cabins and Norma Jean - to the present, while Norma Jean, probably an intuitive, seems to be focused on the future - a future in which her past with Leroy really doesn't have a part. Past- and future-focused spouses can help each other balance these tendencies (according to Isabel Myers's book Gifts Differing), but unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with Leroy and Norma Jean.