’t be the case fora married couple of 16 years, again foreshadowing an imminent end to the marriage. Norma Jean, in the meantime, learns to play the organ. At first she learns Christmassongs, and then all the songs in the “Sixties Songbook”. The only thing Leroy does insmoke joints on the couch. He wasted one of his days buying marijuana from a kid,further displaying is stationary and pathetic life. Norma Jean is tired of his loungingaround. One day, after watching Leroy sew a Star Trek pillow cover, she says, “Youdon’t know what to do with yourself”. This symbolizes Norma Jean’s direction in life andLeroy’s lack of motivation to do anything productive, like try to save his marriage. Thereseems to be a role reversal in this marriage, with Norma Jean occupying the masculinerole. Norma Jean has to tell Leroy to find work. She says, “You have to find a job first”(Mason 49), referring to Leroy’s desire to build her a log cabin. She even names off jobsfor Leroy: “You could get a job as a guard at Union Carbide, where they’d let you set ona stool...You could do a little carpenter work, if you want to build so bad” (Mason 49). Leroy just says that he can’t do anything where he would have to stand up all day. In bedthat night Norma Jean closes her eyes and requests that the lights be turned out, just likeshe wants the lights turned out in this marriage. Leroy still has a preoccupation withbuilding Norma Jean a log cabin, yet the notion of receiving a truckload of notched,numbered logs scares him. Once again this symbolizes his fear of the future, just theopposite of Norma Jean. Although Norma Jean is the “king of the castle”, Leroy stillyearns for insistence that he is the man of the house. He asks Norma Jean, “Am I still kingaround here?” (Mason 53). When Norma Jean flexes her biceps she is showing Leroy thatshe is...
