In the short story, "Shiloh", by Bobbie Ann Mason, a married couple is torn apart after the death of their young child, Randy, and the fact that as the years have come and gone, they have grown so far apart in their relationship they are like complete strangers to one another. The wife, Norman Jean, has taken a good look at where she wants to be in her middle stages of life and she notices that she is not there. Her husband, Leroy, who is recovering from an auto accident, is just hanging around the house, unable to work. He notices that his wife is changing into a different woman than the one that he married. This story goes through all of the emotions that this couple is feeling and it explains in creative detail how the separation has been going of for years, but neither one wants to notice until now. Some of these changes are great and some are so subtle that even the husband is having a hard time taking notice
             Norma Jean is having repressed feeling towards her husband, her mother, her lost life and her lost child. She does not want any of it to exist anymore and she is wants to leave it all behind her. Leroy, her husband is in denial of what is happening in his life and he is using drugs to suppress it all, just like Norma Jean is using night school and weight lifting. Neither one can deal with what is real; they both want a better life. They want their son back, they want good jobs, they want to go back in time and redo all of the bad events and make them better, but they both realize that it is an impossible feat. Norma Jena is a strong and an independent woman. She is making a new life for herself and she wants to leave her past where it is, in the past and that includes Leroy.
             Norma Jean has a life outside of their home. She works at a drug store and she is learning a lot about cosmetics. Her home life is cooking for husband, than for herself. She is lifting weights and taking better care of herself. She has even...