Abstract

The Sentimentalist works to combine several interconnecting stories in order to explore the processes of death and dying, of guilt, and of the trauma of War. A central character, Caroline Emerson, is developed through whom---over the course of a summer spent at the family's summer house---the remembered histories of her family, and most importantly her father, are told. The contrast between the oral story-telling method in which these histories are eventually received collides with Caroline's desire to record and understand her family through her photojournalism project: a more objective, and exclusive lens. It is made apparent to Caroline that her father's story is much more complex and many-layered than she originally supposed. The majority of the novel is set in the family's summer-house situated in a town which was, in the early part of the twentieth century, relocated when the original was flooded by a hydroelectric dam. The new house borders the lake which flooded the original town and the distinct contrast between the past and the present is always---for the residents of the town---apparent. Caroline's father's experience and memories are seen to be, metaphorically, as buried as the old town. This thesis uses research and oral accounts of the Vietnam War, and demonstrates the complex nature of family relationships and memory.