Date of Award

Spring 8-1-2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Mark Lewandowski

Second Advisor

Brendan Corcoran

Third Advisor

Kathleen Kincade

Abstract

Waiting/or a Message is a collection of short stories and short creative nonfiction about experiences of search, loss, and discovery of and within truth, love, and self The presence or threat of silence, whether it be held or broken, accepted or rejected, appears in many forms and is always instrumental in the losses and discoveries of the voices and characters throughout the collection. In the personal essay "Waiting for a Message," the voice narrates her first visit to a Spiritualist camp and finds herself doubting the authenticity of the messages she and her family receive. The short story "Cannot Predict at this Time" follows Frankie, a young woman who has just lost her best friend and former lover to cancer. As she attends her friend's funeral, she grapples with the decisions she made during his illness. In the short story "What the Volcano Saw," Jo is haunted by her nightmares of volcanoes as she begins accept that her marriage has fallen apart and that she has waited too long to break the silence that has grown between her and her husband. "White Truths" is a personal essay that follows two of my father's romantic relationships. The voice recalls the experience of watching her father redecorate his house for his dying girlfriend as well as the moments she witnessed of her father's later failed marriage. "Mange" is a short story set in the home of a young couple, Curt and Darcy, who lost an infant to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome six months before. Curt reluctantly leaves their tattered marriage and Darcy suffers from a nervous breakdown. The biographical essay "A Mother's Touch" traces key moments in the childhood of a woman who was raised in a mental health institution and treated with both insulin coma therapy and electroshock therapy. The short story "Unexpected" features a self-conscious and insecure protagonist, Kendra, who fears she might be pregnant as she attends her first yoga class and contemplates the possibility of pregnancy. In the short story "Mylar Balloons," the protagonist, Cassie tries to reconnect with her sister, Sandy, after Sandy's failed suicide attempt. "Cycle of Silence" is a personal essay that examines three disparate experiences to illustrate how the cycle of violence is perpetuated by silence.

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