Date of Award

5-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Legacy Department

English

Committee Chair/Advisor

Morris, Keith

Committee Member

Bennett , Alma

Committee Member

Koon , Bill

Abstract

My creative thesis is a novella entitled Mountain Dolphins. It is mostly autobiographical and follows the life of a girl named Genevieve. The first part of the novella, 'No Kind of Legend,' is told in first-person, from the point-of-view of a small child named Genevieve. She begins by telling us that she comes from a very poor family in Woodruff, a small town in Spartanburg County. She was supposed to have a brother, but her mom had a miscarriage and lost the baby. Gen's cousin, Scott, moves in with her right before she finishes primary school. Apparently, his mother and father simply did not want to take care of him or his sister any longer. His sister is now living with Gen's grandmother. The second part of my novella, 'Dig,' continues to follow Gen as she enters higher school grades, but she still manages to carry a sense of aloneness with her. She continues to reach out for any kind of attention. An accident at a family member's funeral sends her to the emergency room--a negative but needed attention for her. This section becomes more religious and begins to deal with a bit of Southern racism as told by her grandfather. The Big Woman is also introduced in this section. She is a mysterious Southern woman with two very unordinary children. Gen has never seen this woman's face, but she is a part of her family, somehow. The third part, 'Kudzu,' gets to the heart of Gen's adult character. This is a major shift in the narrative because the themes of guilt and responsibility become a bit darker. The atmosphere at certain places becomes darker, and she is faced with choices she never thought she would have to make. The novella ends with an Epilogue for readers to see how her life turns out and if she has changed from the beginning.

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