Bobbie Ann Mason’s story “Shiloh” is about the disintegration of a marriage. The story's central idea is that people’s inability to communicate in the aftermath of personal tragedy can destroy an intimate relationship such as a marriage.

Norma Jean and Leroy are a married couple whose relationship is falling apart. Their present-day lack of mutual understanding grew out of much earlier difficulties. After the death of Randy, their infant son, Norma Jean and Leroy could not talk about their experiences and drifted apart. The gap between them grew so large that they could not bridge it.

The author uses a third-person narrator but primarily offers the man’s point of view, while indicating that they rarely share their feelings. Leroy reflects on their marriage and his inability or unwillingness to discuss his thoughts with Norma Jean.

Perhaps he reminds her too much of the early years of their marriage…. They had a child who died as an infant. They never speak about their memories of Randy… and Leroy wonders if one of them should mention the child.

Norma Jean later brings up the subject of the baby’s death, but without specifically mentioning it. She is prompted by her mother telling a story about a dog that killed a baby. Leroy claims not to understand her.

“What are you talking about?” Leroy says, nervously shuffling blueprints.

“You know good and well…. The very idea, her bringing up a subject like that! Saying it was neglect.”

“She didn’t mean that,” Leroy says.

Later, Leroy realizes that he does not understand his wife or even how a marriage works. He connects this idea with his lack of understanding of history, about which he is thinking because of their visit to the Shiloh Civil War battlefield. Leroy reflects that

the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him.