University of Southern Maine USM Digital Commons All Theses & Dissertations Student Scholarship 2016 When Lonesome Rains Come Close Inside Mary Katherine Spain MFA University of Southern Maine Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/etd Recommended Citation Spain, Mary Katherine MFA, "When Lonesome Rains Come Close Inside" (2016). All Theses & Dissertations. 291. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/etd/291 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at USM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of USM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WHEN LONESOME RAINS COME CLOSE INSIDE _____________ A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE STONECOAST MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING BY MARY KATHERINE SPAIN ____________ 2016 ABSTRACT In “Out Shelby,” we witness the corrosive effects of familial co-dependency and manipulation in rural Kentucky and the struggles of its ten-year old female narrator, Laura Neil, as she tries to protect the one thing she can relate to: the family hound dog; “Take My Hand” is an urban caper that explores the dependency of strangers in the struggle for self-preservation and the comic relief such shenanigans can often yield; “Look for the Octopus” follows a loosely-tethered elementary school teacher named Penelope Richards as she attempts to protect her opus, a school musical she has written and produced; “A Fortune” examines the malady of malaise brought on by too much affluence as we witness the emotional blunting its worried-well main character, Gillian, is forced to subsist on.