Keywords

Creative Writing, fiction, short stories, thesis

Abstract

A Little Slice of the Moon: stories is a collection of short stories that explore the struggles of various characters to find their place in the world. And the world, despite its familiarity, can be a hostile place. The characters in this collection learn that families are a fragile lot, that every desire contains a paradox, that the Road of Life can seemingly be grasped by the horns, but that the future twists and turns, yet never escapes the past. And it is the past that haunts these characters' lives. One word, one act, impacts a lifetime. In A Little Slice of the Moon, Khalid traces the devastation of his 'new' life and his alienation to everything around him back to a youthful error. In The Thousand Trees Orchard, the arrival of Mahjabeen, Laddo's deranged and possibly dangerous sister, teaches Laddo the difference between fleeing the past and embracing it. In Dead Woman's Pass, Priya tries to outrun her malevolent qismet, and in doing so, almost loses herself as well. Isolation, physical or emotional, is a primary element in many of these characters' lives. Whether the isolation is self-imposed or results from circumstances beyond their control, these characters realize that where they are matters less than what they've done. They learn that confronting themselves--who they are, who they were--is the only way to break free from the past and make peace with themselves and with the world around them.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2005

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Leiby, Jeanne

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

English

Degree Program

English

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000911

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000911

Language

English

Release Date

January 2006

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Included in

Fiction Commons

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