Million Dollar Red
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Spring 2011 Million Dollar Red Jennifer Marie Ghastin San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Ghastin, Jennifer Marie, "Million Dollar Red" (2011). Master's Theses. 3928. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.umpj-u8sa https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3928 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MILLION DOLLAR RED A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English and Comparative Literature San Jose State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts by Jennifer M. Ghastin May 2011 © 2011 Jennifer M. Ghastin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled MILLION DOLLAR RED by Jennifer M. Ghastin APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY May 2011 Robert Cullen Department of English and Comparative Literature Nick Taylor Department of English and Comparative Literature Peter P. O’Sullivan Department of English and Comparative Literature ABSTRACT MILLION DOLLAR RED by Jennifer M. Ghastin The novel Million Dollar Red connects the lives of six women in Eastside San Jose in pursuit of a common set of desires to be beautiful, happy, and something other than what they were when they walked into Quynh’s Nail Salon. The third person limited point of view shifts protagonists every time a character comes into contact with a certain shade of red nail polish, Million Dollar Red. According to Quynh, the owner of the salon, the polish has the magical power to give women what they need but not what they want. Once the six women have encountered the color, the narrative rotates through their lives, alternating between manicurist and client. Each client enters the salon with a personal conflict, but this conflict changes with the application of the red polish and the interaction with the manicurist. In the backdrop, the manicurists struggle with the central conflict: the impending health inspection. Million Dollar Red exaggerates the differences and similarities of the women in Eastside San Jose, pitting their cultural stereotypes against each other comically, ironically, and sometimes tragically. The women, propelled by a desire to be at least a little different from who they are, find themselves driven towards each other, and in some cases, realize that they do want essentially the same things, no matter where they come from. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I especially want to thank my parents for their tremendous support. If they had not provided me a “room of my own,” I would not have had the space and time to write. I would like to thank my son, Sage, for inspiring me to live up to the highest expectation of myself. A big thank you goes out to my community of writers, the Friday night Pizza My Heart gang and Darrell, my comrades in the 800 lounge, all of my students, and Alex. And finally, I am sincerely indebted to the beautiful women in Eastside San Jose who are the inspiration for my characters and who make this story real. v CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... VIII WORKS CITED ...................................................................................................................................... XVI PART ONE .................................................................................................................................................... 1 QUYNH ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 KIMMIE ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 QUYNH ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 KIMMIE ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 QUYNH ...................................................................................................................................................... 21 PART TWO ................................................................................................................................................. 23 LAM .......................................................................................................................................................... 24 MIRIAM ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 THI ............................................................................................................................................................ 38 PERKINS .................................................................................................................................................... 48 PART THREE ............................................................................................................................................. 56 QUYNH ...................................................................................................................................................... 57 KIMMIE ..................................................................................................................................................... 65 LAM .......................................................................................................................................................... 77 MIRIAM ..................................................................................................................................................... 82 THI ............................................................................................................................................................ 85 PERKINS .................................................................................................................................................... 93 PART FOUR ................................................................................................................................................ 96 QUYNH ...................................................................................................................................................... 97 KIMMIE ................................................................................................................................................... 108 LAM ........................................................................................................................................................ 120 THI .......................................................................................................................................................... 131 PERKINS .................................................................................................................................................. 143 PART FIVE ............................................................................................................................................... 153 QUYNH .................................................................................................................................................... 154 KIMMIE ................................................................................................................................................... 157 LAM ........................................................................................................................................................ 161 MIRIAM ................................................................................................................................................... 166 THI .......................................................................................................................................................... 169 PERKINS .................................................................................................................................................. 178 vi PART SIX .................................................................................................................................................. 184 QUYNH .................................................................................................................................................... 185 KIMMIE ................................................................................................................................................... 191 LAM ........................................................................................................................................................ 196 MIRIAM ................................................................................................................................................... 199 THI 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