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Without a doubt Robert Frost’s Home Burial and Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh have very much in common, although one of them is a short story (Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh) and another is a poem (Robert Frost’s Home Burial). Present paper aims to discover the similarities in the themes of these outstanding literary works through the analysis of the plot, story character, major themes, and the characters actions. The plots of both stories aren’t too complicated; they are simple but very dramatic with a focus on loss and the need for communication.
It is clear at once that the major focuses of Home Burial by Robert Frost are loss and coping with grief. Death in this poem is a death of the couple’s child. Frost manages to show that the grief may be very different and different persons grieve in their own ways. Unity of the couple – who are the major protagonists of Frost’s Home Burial – is under threat after their loss. A staircase is a place of this poem’s action, which is an obvious symbol that is able to unite people or even make the distance between them larger depending on their personal choices. A staircase was used in Home Burial as an intersection of the fate, the stage where people may become one family again, or may say goodbye to each other. Why the poem was called Home Burial? Because the discussion of the major characters reveals that the couple’s child was buried in the yard by the farther. Mother was stunned by her husband’s apparent carelessness that looked strange to her in comparison to her own feelings. It was caused by their opposite beliefs and their different way of grieving, when husband thought about his child’s death in terms of the caprices of nature or fate.
In other words, each person in this couple is surprised by the other’s behavior in the situation of common loss. The author leaves a doubt in the hearts of the readers. The audience isn’t sure if it is possible for this couple to become true family and regain the closeness that they had before their tragic loss.
It could be added that another outstanding characteristic of Robert Frost’s Home Burial is highly dramatic character of this poem. It becomes clear immediately from the first line of Home Burial: ‘He saw her from the bottom of the stairs before she saw him’ (Frost, 1982) Critics claim that this first line defines this poem because it presents a story like a drama for its readers straight away. I believe that the following line expresses the whole core idea and the complex character of the relations described by Robert Frost in Home Burial:
‘…He said twice over before he knew himself:
“Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost?”
“Not you!—Oh, where’s my hat?
Oh, I don’t need it! I must get out of here. I must get air
Amy! Don’t go to someone else this time.’ (Frost, 1982)
Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason also speaks about the loss. It should be noted that its major themes are also the persistence of grief and the relations of the couple who has lost a child. Again, the plot of this story can’t be defined as complicated too.
It seems that the protagonist of the story Leroy Moffitt is in the process of losing his identity and a sense of purpose. Author tells that a highway accident has happened and the major character who was a truck driver at that time had received serious injury that makes his further work as truck driver impossible. It brings him back home to his wife Norma Jean who appears to be uncomfortable with Leroy’s new way of living.
Leroy’s return becomes a crucial stage of their relationship when this couple has to learn one another after this change. Again, like in Robert Frost’s Home Burial, the expectations of the couple do not correspond, because Leroy was sure that his constant presence at home will be much appreciated and their union will become even more happier, but instead the reaction of his wife is opposite – it is annoyance and oppression to the new role of the husband who was always was away.
Clearly, Shiloh is also a story of Norma Jean’ transformation. When her husband came back home, she felt that Leroy has become a stranger her and that they do not understand each other anymore.
The theme of loss play an important role in Shiloh’s plot although it’s not a recent event, it happened years before the story takes place. I would say that these Home Burial by Robert Frost and Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason may be contrast by the place the loss possesses in the story. The loss in Home Burial is rather direct, recent, and is mentioned immediately by the author and the when the loss that is described in Shiloh is not evident, but it is still has a dramatic influence over the couples’ consciousnesses.
Randy is the name of the son of Norma Jean and Leroy. It appears that Randy’s death is not a point of their discussion, but an obvious the forefront of Norma Jean and Leroy ‘s minds. A conclusion could be made that both couples in Home Burial and also in Shiloh have a problem with communication and understanding. The lack of the ability to share the grief is the serious problem leads to the growing distance between these people. An audience may easily notice the communication breakdown in these couples’ relations.
Ironically, both wives found themselves in the similar positions, when they feel their husbands’ didn’t take the mourning process as deep as they did and it hasn’t last as long as theirs.
Obviously, it should be emphasized that one of the interesting common aspects of the analysis of Home Burial and Shiloh is the gender roles and the conflict between genders. The loss is the trigger in both cases. The grief makes the gender conflict noticeable.
It’s interesting these stories have appeared at the same time and a presumption could be made that their authors were influenced by the development of women’s rights movement and spreading of feminism in America.
But as for historical context of these two stories, it is actually very different, because the actions described in Home Burial occur in 1915 when the traditional gender roles were praised and when women had few opportunities for independence. Shiloh takes place during the 1980s, when the situation with female empowerment has significantly changed and women are free and have certain rights and freedoms.
To sum up, the comparison of these two literary works allows making a presumption that the women always despite the social situation aimed to assert themselves as individuals (separate from their other roles such as mother or wife). Both stories are description of the free choice of women who choose to go against the expectations (both their husbands’ and society’s)
It should be added that the feminist undertones is the uniting element of the Robert Frost’s poem Home Burial and Bobbie Mason’s story Shiloh. The communication between the married people, the society’s expectations of gender roles within marriage are challenged by Robert Frost and Bobbie Mason in their short but brilliant and dramatic literary works. Unfortunately, both major female characters of these works find the only available solution to change their gender situation, which is to abandon the marriage. Robert Frost’s poem Home Burial and Bobbie Mason’s story Shiloh are very sad stories that describe similar tragedies including the loss of the child, consequent losses of interrelations and communications between people and finally, the collapse of the marriages.
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