The Ally Girls: A Portrait of Contemporary Women

This thesis, a work of creative nonfiction, explores two subjects. One subject is an enduring friendship among four women that begins in childhood and continues into adulthood, examining the changes these relationships undergo as the women create their own families and allegiances and loyalties change. Comments and criticisms that were once easily accepted in childhood are taboo as these relationships progress. This group of women, The Ally Girls, navigates the changes and realizes each woman is ultimately on her own journey. The second subject is the protagonist, myself, as I "come of age" in the seven-year time span the piece covers, which culminates in my mid-thirties. During that time, I struggle to understand the end of my parents' marriage, my own obsessive compulsive tendencies, depression, pregnancy, childbirth and a chronic health diagnosis. Traditionally, young women come of age in their late teens to early twenties and many literary works document the experience. However, as a greater number of women attend college, pursue careers and marry and have children later in life, many contemporary women are not truly dealing with the full spectrum of conventional adult issues until much later. This thesis is an amalgam of the issues contemporary women face while underscoring the role female friendship plays in the discovery of self.

Author dc:creator

• Gala, Christa Anne

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Dr. Elaine N. Orr, Committee Chair
• Dr. Leila May, Committee Member
• Wilton Barnhardt, Committee Member

• female friendship
• creative nonfiction
• memoir
• coming of age

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-12102007-160638

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F1465