Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Jon Manchip White

Committee Members

Marilyn Kallet, A. R. Penner

Abstract

This is a novel about adversity. The story is about one family; it is told primarily but not exclusively through the voice of one child in the family, the oldest girl, Rachel. Rachel is nine when the story opens. This primary voice reaches the reader through a series of "notes" written by Rachel directly to the reader. Of the thirteen chapters, eight are through Rachel's notes and one (the last chapter) is by way of a letter from Rachel to her sister, Iva. The other four chapters are told by three other family members and an omniscient observer. The author has chosen to stay with the one voice more than any other so there is consistency and continuity throughout. Also, the focus on one voice gives the reader the impression that he or she shares something very personal with Rachel, not only the secret of her notes, but the secret she reveals in her notes--the tragedy of family violence.

All the chapters outside the Rachel chapters (with the possible exception of "Eyes of Iva") can stand alone as short stories in their own right. All of the Rachel chapters, including the letter at the end, can be combined and make a short novel or novella without any need for the other chapters. The Rachel chapters and the other chapters do not rely on one another; they enhance one another.

This novel tells the story of a poor family and its struggle for survival, with particular focus on the children and how they cope with the cruelty of their world. The story is told in such a way as to allow the reader to vicariously experience the stark contrasts of tenderness versus violence, compassion and kindness versus meanness, and the goodness of innocence versus evil. None of the first-person story tellers realize the pathos of their condition nearly as well as the reader does; therefore, the reader is left free to make judgments which might not occur to the speakers at all. It is possible that each reader will go away having received his or her own individual message, in which case, the author has accomplished much more than she could have ever hoped for.

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