Manifest Destiny
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2007 Manifest Destiny John Nardone University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Nardone, John, "Manifest Destiny" (2007). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2132. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/gi3n-246p This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MANIFEST DESTINY by John Nardone Bachelor of Arts University of Scranton 1999 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing Department of English College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1443780 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1443780 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval ITNTV The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 12 20 07 The Thesis prepared by John J. Nardone Entitled Manifest Destiny is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of ______________Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Examination Committee Chair 1 Dean of the Graduate College Examination Committee Member Examination Committee Member Graduate College Faculty Representative 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Manifest Destiny: A Novel by John Nardone Douglas Unger, Committee Chair Professor of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas In order to complete the University of Nevada Las Vegas English Department’s Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts degree, a student must eomplete 54 hours of graduate course work related to creative writing, literature, and international study. In addition, the student is expected to devote 12 credit hours to a culminating work of publishable quality. To fulfill the requirements of my MF A Thesis, I am composing a novel entitled, ''Manifest DestinyC The novel, as indicated in the title, is meant to intuit a commentary on the westward migration of European settlers in the United States. The main eharacter, Dominic Rossi, grows up in Philadelphia - a city built around its history - but by the end of the novel he makes his personal trek west to America beyond the Rocky Mountains, a part of the country in which he feels less inhibited by historical expectation, fulfilling an individual destiny. The novel begins with Dominic Rossi working with his father in the enterprise of stealing ears, but he gets eaught after stealing the ear of a girl named Laura Shelley. When his father is sent to jail, he moves in with his mother on the outskirts of town and 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ends up in the same school district as Laura Shelley. They beeome attracted to each other, and when Dominie reports the girl’s name to his mother, she reacts by indicating a greater history between the families. Dominie later discovers that his mother had an affair with Laura’s father. Dr. Shelley. Ten years later, Dominic and Laura’s paths cross again and their union is inevitable, despite their history. Dominic has given up stealing cars and has become a history teacher. Laura discovers other things about Dominic along the way, and the relationship is complicated by her father’s intervention and Dominic’s indiscretions. By the end of the novel. Dominie is forced to make a decision: become a part of the Shelley family - which can trace its history on the continent back to the Mayflower - or escape and head west to reunite with his father. As Dominic develops an intellectual interest in the westward migration, with a special interest in the concept of Manifest Destiny, he realizes that his path is not dependent upon soeietal trends but rather individual. And his decision in the end of the novel to steal a ear and drive west fulfills a personal, manifest destiny. IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1........................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 ...........................................................................................................................43 CHAPTERS................................ ..........................................................................................83 CHAPTER 4 ...........................................................................................................................98 CHAPTERS.........................................................................................................................143 CHAPTER 6 ................................................................................................ 175 CHAPTER 7 ...........................................................................................................................229 CHAPTER 8...........................................................................................................................243 CHAPTER 9...........................................................................................................................291 VITA......................................................................................................................................322 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 After his mother left, Dominic slept in more times than he or the truant officers could count, but he was awake before sunrise on the day he and his father were stealing a car. He could have rolled off the mattress then but he waited - as the line of sunlight emerged and descended the sheet over his window, as his father coughed the morning out of his throat on his way downstairs and the smell of coffee and cigarette smoke rose up to his bedroom - until he heard his father’s boots against the backs of stairs and the bang on his door. “Wake up. Lucky, time to go to work.” “Okay,” Dominic said, feigning grogginess. Lying on two stacked mattresses, Dominicwas close to the floor on which he did pushups and sit-ups, but he liked to stand and stretch first, reaching his hands high above him and touching the ceiling. The pushups and sit-ups were getting easier but he didn’t want to exceed fifty and tire his muscles before his workout later in the day. He flexed through his teeth brushing, cursed stretch marks he saw on his back in the mirror, got most of his hair into a ponytail; threw on jeans, a tee shirt, and socks. He reached into his dresser drawer for a stack of ten hundred dollar bills, folded and bound with a rubber band, and smelled it - it was beginning to weather with experience - then placed the stack in the inside of his left boot. He descended the stairs, sidestepping now that he was a size 13, outgrowing the house like he was his skin. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. He leaped from the fourth stair to the bottom and just missed landing on a dumbbell. He stepped over the curling bar, walked up to the punehing bag and jabbed once, twice with the left; it always hurt like hell when he threw a hook without the gloves but fuek it, he thought, swinging the elbow and keeping his fist elose to the body. He jammed the top knuckles on his left hand and tried to hide the grimace, but it was too late, his father staring. “You’re still off-balance on that left hook.” Dominic poured himself a eup of eoffee - his father made enough for both of them - and made a bowl of cereal and sat down. He father lowered the newspaper, the sports section of theDaily News. “Seventy-one Mach One,” his father said. “A real cherry.” “Three-fifty one Boss or Cleveland four-barrel?” Dominic