Shiloh Essay Introduction
Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh,” first published in 1980 in
The New Yorker
, follows Leroy Moffitt and his wife,
Norma Jean, as they struggle with the changes in their marriage and lives in rural Kentucky. After
returning home from a trucking job, Leroy hopes to rebuild his relationship with Norma Jean, but she
has developed interests and ambitions that differ from the life they once shared. Their visit to the Shiloh
battlefield, a place associated with the violence and division of the Civil War, becomes a setting for
confronting the distance that has grown between them. Through the couple’s strained relationship,
changing social expectations, and the symbolic significance of the battlefield, Mason examines
marriage, personal identity, change, and the difficulty of holding onto a relationship when both people
are moving in different directions.
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