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ETD Abstract Container

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The Point Where They Meet and Other Stories

Stone, Brittany Nicole
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302529902

Abstract Details

2011, MFA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
In this collection of nine short stories, I explore the small and unfortunate realities of working-class characters affected by forms of loss. Through situation, these characters are forced to come to terms with change and either evolve in some small way or, in some cases, digress. In the story “The Spider,” the narrator sets her brother Bill up with Sally, a young mother and friend from work. The narrator and Bill are live-in caretakers for their elderly father, who suffers from dementia. In the past, the father was a tyrant, running his family with an iron fist. At the end of the story, Bill hints at leaving his father to fend for himself and the narrator toys with the idea, too. Both characters have been repressed by their father’s abuse as young children and by duty as adults, and, as a result, have never lived their own lives. All of the stories in this collection follow a similar structural course as I tend to force my characters into situation right away so that they can begin to think, react, grow, and change. In the story “A Real Hollywood Production,” Bud, a retired coal miner, signs up to be an extra in the Hollywood movie that’s being filmed in his sleepy Ohio River town, seeking youth and a sense of vitality that constantly evades him in the wake of his wife’s death. In these stories and all others (dealing with a rare plant, talking hen, burglar, and trained bobcat, to name a few), I aim to maintain clear, simple prose that does not adorn or make light of my characters’ struggles to remain active and afloat in a large, limiting world.
Robert Pope (Advisor)
Robert Miltner (Committee Member)
Varley O'Connor (Committee Member)
150 p.
Families and Family Life; Literature; Modern Literature; Personal Relationships
Short Stories; Working Class

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stone, B. N. (2011). The Point Where They Meet and Other Stories [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302529902

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stone, Brittany. The Point Where They Meet and Other Stories. 2011. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302529902.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stone, Brittany. "The Point Where They Meet and Other Stories." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302529902

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1302529902
847
© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.