Kiddie Pool is a collection of eight short stories dealing in general terms with themes of culpability and control. The characters in the stories have their share of problems—car accidents, domestic violence, manic depression, obesity, unexpected deaths, truth or dare, religious crises—but they are resilient souls who keep on keeping...
This thesis attempts to identify and develop a new narrative structure that has not yet been identified. This structure, which traces a character’s internal process of change throughout a work of literature, is known as the Awakening Arc. The Awakening Arc has seven stages that loosely correspond to Freytag’s external...
Storytelling has been a key societal element for hundreds of years. Over time it has evolved from tales spread by word-of-mouth, to printed words, and most recently to worldwide digital platforms. Stories, and their ability to be both shared and coveted, make them a truly unique aspect of the human...
The rate of physician dissatisfaction is steadily rising. Between 2011 and 2012, the number of physicians that would not choose a career in medicine if given the opportunity to decide again increased by 15% (Adams). This discontentment has major repercussions in the midst of the rising need for physicians: it...
“If you are holding this letter” a historical fiction novella that educates readers about the historical significance of World War II: what it was like to be an American soldier fighting in Europe and how the war effected the personal lives those on the home front. Through first-person narration, this...
These six stories investigate characters who must
begin to understand their own actions, which are often
made in response to authority. In the lives of these
characters, there are schemas which they believe they
fit, certain rules placed on them by society that they
each feel they must obey. It...
This thesis, a collection of creative non-fiction essays, explores the nature and influence of reading and school in the author's life. After a brief introduction explaining the title, part one describes the sensory dimensions of reading. Part two discusses the author's work as a student and teacher and the contradictions...
The stories here are stories of childhood. To me, they concern the shift between dependence to independence, comfort to instability, which is disastrous for the characters but also a point of awakening. The move from childhood to adulthood puts the characters in a world that is neither made for the...
The overarching theme of these stories is the relationship between love and hate, especially the connection between kindness and violence. In this fictional world, love often begets hate, and hate, love: a man's capacity for empathy serves as the catalyst for an act of brutality; a character's loneliness, his desire...