A Walk Through the Valley of Shadows

Magical Realism, religion, illness and death are twisted through this collection of short stories to explore how people deal with the fantasy of belief in a very real world. The non-fiction essay "How an Illness I Don't Have is Going to Kill Me" explores how invasive an illness is to a whole family unit and not just the person with the disease. Elements from this piece can be seen in each of the fictional stories. "Out of Breath Wishes" explores how a woman comes to terms with who she is and how the world sees her despite the fact that she considers herself normal. Contrasting our contemporary world with sacred religious figures puts the character's faith into questions and forces them to try to figure out how to apply old belief systems to a question of sacrifice in the story "In the Year of Our Lord." The next story, "Ghost Boy in the Land of the Queens," brings the question of gender and existence into a character's world of death. "The True Story of Cripple-Boy Who Was Probably Named Billy" aims to make the reader realize that people with handicaps are so often turned into archetypes that the narrators of the story don't really care what actually happened to the real boy. And in "Heaven Under New Management" explores what happens when we finally get the power to have exactly what we want and why that is such a bad idea.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.F.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Creative Writing and Media Arts (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Casady, Nicole

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Terrell, Whitney

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/49498

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/49498