Digital Commons Network^™

The Present Giver And Other Stories On Human Connections, Erin B. Waggoner

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Present Giver and Other Stories on Human Connections is a collection of seven short stories dealing with individuals that struggle to connect to another person. However, the stories also explore that these characters still feel the need to connect, stories very indicative of my own struggles with apathy and relationships. The critical analysis takes on a creative non-fiction approach as a way to show my development as a writer and how these stories relate to what I've learned through the years from my love of reading.

The First Act, Angela Hunt

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The First Act is a creative thesis which explores the boundaries of biography and autobiography, fact and fiction, as the life of my mother, Deborah Wolfe, and my own, intersect in prose and drama. My purpose in writing this thesis was to examine and seek an understanding of my own relationship with the past and the present, as I explored the roots of my family history, specifically through the eyes of my mother, while using aspects of my family’s West Virginian and Mormon heritage. By reading the following story, you will, in a way, go on that journey with me …

East 52 : A Multi-Genre Work Chronicling One Man’S Final Journey, M. Joseph Jarrett

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Middle-aged Michael Coogan heads east on US Route 52 through the area known as "Creed County" (a combination of Mercer Co, WV and Bland Co, VA), returning home to "bury" his father, although the man has been in the ground for several months. After a near fatal accident, Michael sees historical markers often revealing two stories: the typical history and the "unknown" history—a description of a fateful event that occurred in or near the locale described. Upon learning of these second histories, he visualizes the events surrounding the unknown facts related to him on the "reverse" markers. These stories trigger …

The Narratology Of Jennifer Johnston's Novels, Robert N. Hutton

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Irish novelist Jennifer Johnston has published twelve novels to date, from The Captains and the Kings in 1972 to The Gingerbread Woman in 2000. Eileen Battersby's recent Irish Times article “Making Sense of Life” called her “the quiet woman of Irish fiction, “ referring to her understated, sophisticated writing style. All of her novels are short (Joseph Connelly and others have called them “novellas”), and she has become known for her ability to describe a complex situation in a direct, compact way.

This discussion is intended to investigate the narratology of several Johnston novels: to explore narrative voice, narrative chronology, …

Wading In The Lethe, Honor J. Mccain

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

To Honor (by Wendy Jones Johnson, circa 1976)

The rosebud mouth, the round, little thighs,

Our plump, bright elf with the dark, blue eyes

Our lives before were so incomplete

Soon the flutter inside of two, tiny feet

We thought we knew freedom

The years before you came

Now we know the wonder of creating life's flame

Aflame to grow, to flicker, and at last be an ember

To enrich our lives for years to remember

How we cherish and love you, your innocent glee,

You, the miracle of warmth and sensitivity.

My mother wrote this poem when I was …

The Muffler Mailbox Man, J. Amari Roland

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Upon my arrival on earth. Mother forbad me from doing two things: going to K-Mart and talking to my Uncle Ike.

Ironically, the first word I learned to read was "K-Mart.” Mother pointed out the store every time we drove past. She told me many times of the evil that could befall a person if he entered its doors. I reckoned she knew all about K-Mart because she claimed to have gone there twice before I was born. Based on the two visits, Mother decided that the voice of the blue-light special masked some sinister, subliminal message. While everyone else …