Lullabies and Sleepless Nights Erika Gallion
Lullabies and Sleepless Nights Erika Gallion A work of fiction, a thesis, a journey Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts of Creative Writing And graduating from the Academic Honors Program at Ashland University April 2014 Mentor: Dr. Joe Mackall Second Reader: Dr. Linda Joyce Brown ii “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald iii Abstract In this collection of short stories, the universal questions of what the passing of time does to human beings, what human beings do to one another, and why we do what we do to one another, are raised. In order to raise these questions as well as attempt to provide some kind of answer (although sometimes the answer may be that there is not one), I include an array of stories from varied characters’ points of view. In this collection, I experimented with point of view by using characters of different genders, different age groups, and even diverse religious and racial identities. Each character in this collection struggles with loss of some kind, be it of a part of their own identity, a beloved person, or even a memory that he/she desperately wants to hold onto. This collection is an attempt to examine human nature on the every day level, to make sense of the way that something that used to provide comfort (a lover’s voice, the smell of tulips, that song that you used to love) can turn into something that keeps us up at night, and, how time can alter us in the opposite way, turning things we once loved into things we are all out of passion for.
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