Date of Award

Fall 2001

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Michael Pearson

Committee Member

Philip Raisor

Committee Member

Janet Bing

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 B653 2001

Abstract

A collection of stories about Navy wives, She Stories: Navy knaves in the Twentieth Century examines the impact that world events have on the lives of women married to men serving in the United States Navy. World War II serves as the backdrop for the story of Alice Wood, a young woman who was raised in China and met her husband while he was serving on a patrol boat off the coast of Asia. Peggy Allen, whose story is set in the early sixties, marries her high school sweetheart. During his first tour, he is killed in an aviation accident, and Peggy is left a widow with a young daughter. She eventually returns to her Navy community and marries another naval aviator. Peggy's story is interlaced with the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the innocence of American society before the cultural revolution of the sixties.

The third story of this trilogy is in first person, and recounts the experience of a navy family which is evacuated from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during the Cuban Refugee Crisis in 1994. The inclusion of the this story portrays the changing role of the military towards the close of the century, as well as the impact of current events on the century, as well as the impact of current events on the family unit.

Although the stories focus primarily on the experience of the military family life, readers outside this community will identify with many of the scenes and situations in which the characters find themselves. The text addresses the increasingly transient nature of American society and suggests that although this may seem to defy all patterns of nature, it does not. Through the image of the banyan tree, this pattern of uprooting can be understood as one of unfettered growth.

Rights

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DOI

10.25777/1jna-f667

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