Abstract

The four fictional pieces in this thesis are intended to reflect the author's interest in various types of narrative voice. The distance between narrator and character in "Influence" functions as a way of understanding the distance the characters experience between each other and from themselves. The second story, "The Order of Things", explores similar themes of alienation and miscommunication through a more intimate alignment of character and narrative voice. The final two pieces, "Hamowego" and "Ceremony", are told in an autobiographical style by a first-person narrator recounting events of her early teenage years. These two last stories are linked through chronology, narrative voice, and characterization, but are intended as stories complete in themselves. They are part of a longer work currently in progress