"Shiloh" is a story that is utterly dependent on its setting --which includes some history of the American South--for meaning. But first, we need to determine what the conflict of the story is, and that means we need to look at the characters.

On this thread, I'd like to start something of a free form discussion that eventually gets us to kind of consensus about Leroy, Norma Jean, and her mother, Mabel. What do you think drives these characters? How do you describe them? What is their relationship to history? To their own personal history? To a larger cultural and national history? As part of this, naturally, setting will play a key part.Take each character at a time.