Minimalism and the American Dream: "Shiloh" by Bobbie Ann Mason and "Preservation" by Raymond Carver
I was sick of reading about the alienated hero. I think where I wind up now is writing about people who are trying to get into the mainstream, or they're in the mainstream, just trying to live their lives the best they can. . . . When they go to the shopping mall, and many of them go just to window shop, they're looking at deliverance from a hard way of life. . . . Many of my characters are caught up in the myth of progress; from their point of view it means liberation, the promise of a better life. Â—Bobbie Ann Mason