The Civil War Battlefield in Shiloh, Tennessee, symbolizes the danger of glorifying the past without reckoning with its traumas. In the story, tourists flock to Shiloh to enjoy the outdoors and celebrate their Southern heritage at a Confederate historic site—but they fail to grapple with the grim reality of what happened there. More than 20,000 people died at the Battle of Shiloh. And besides, it wasn’t a proud moment for the Confederate Army; this was a battle they lost.
There’s a clear contradiction between present-day Shiloh and the tragedy of its past. For one, it’s being used as a honeymoon spot; Mabel honeymooned at Shiloh decades ago, and she encourages Leroy and Norma Jean to visit for their “second honeymoon.” This suggests that she sees the battlefield as a romantic and peaceful place ideal for rekindling love, not a somber reminder of a horrific war. The way that Shiloh has been restored contributes to this illusion. Driving the manicured grounds, Leroy “cannot see it as a battleground.” Other tourists search desperately for bullet holes in an old log cabin, showing how hard they have to look for evidence of the site’s grim past. At the gift shop, Leroy and Norma Jean buy Mabel a Confederate flag souvenir, brushing past the informational movie that would have informed them that the Confederacy lost.
But the story shows that such illusions about the past are untenable. At the end, when Leroy and Norma Jean picnic near the cemetery, Norma Jean ends their marriage. Shiloh is a fitting spot for their breakup, since the foundational problem of their marriage is Leroy’s insistent denial of their past. Just as Shiloh covers up the trauma of the battlefield, Leroy refuses to acknowledge the traumas of their marriage: the death of their infant son and their 15 years of estrangement. Without grappling with the reality of the past, they have no way to move forward; Leroy’s denial ruins his marriage, and all his illusions come tumbling down.
Shiloh Quotes in Shiloh
Mabel is talking about Shiloh, Tennessee. For the past few years, she has been urging Leroy and Norma Jean to visit the Civil War battleground there. Mabel went there on her honeymoon—the only real trip she ever took. Her husband died of a perforated ulcer when Norma Jean was ten, but Mabel, who was accepted into the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1975, is still preoccupied with going back to Shiloh.
“Your name means ‘the king,”’ Norma Jean says to Leroy that evening. He is trying to get her to go to Shiloh, and she is reading a book about another century.
“Well, I reckon I ought to be right proud.”
“I guess so.”
“Am I still king around here?”
Norma Jean flexes her biceps and feels them for hardness. “I’m not fooling around with anybody, if that’s what you mean,” she says.
“Would you tell me if you were?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does your name mean?”
“It was Marilyn Monroe’s real name.”
“No kidding!”
“Norma comes from the Normans. They were invaders,” she says.
At Shiloh, she drives aimlessly through the park, past bluffs and trails and steep ravines. Shiloh is an immense place, and Leroy cannot see it as a battleground. It is not what he expected. He thought it would look like a golf course. Monuments are everywhere, showing through the thick clusters of trees. Norma Jean passes the log cabin Mabel mentioned. It is surrounded by tourists looking for bullet holes.
“That’s not the kind of log house I’ve got in mind,” says Leroy apologetically.
“She won’t leave me alone—you won’t leave me alone.” Norma Jean seems to be crying, but she is looking away from him. “I feel eighteen again. I can’t face that all over again.” She starts walking away.
General Grant, drunk and furious, shoved the Southerners back to Corinth, where Mabel and Jet Beasley were married years later, when Mabel was still thin and good-looking. The next day, Mabel and Jet visited the battleground, and then Norma Jean was born, and then she married Leroy and they had a baby, which they lost, and now Leroy and Norma Jean are here at the same battleground. Leroy knows he is leaving out a lot. He is leaving out the insides of history. History was always just names and dates to him. It occurs to him that building a house out of logs is similarly empty—too simple. And the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him.
Leroy gets up to follow his wife, but his good leg is asleep and his bad leg still hurts him. Norma Jean is far away, walking rapidly toward the bluff by the river, and he tries to hobble toward her. Some children run past him, screaming noisily. Norma Jean has reached the bluff, and she is looking out over the Tennessee River. Now she turns toward Leroy and waves her arms. Is she beckoning to him? She seems to be doing an exercise for her chest muscles. The sky is unusually pale—the color of the dust ruffle Mabel made for their bed.
Shiloh Symbol Timeline in Shiloh
