English, Department of
First Advisor
Jonis Agee
Date of this Version
2014
Citation
A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska on partial fulfillment of requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
Major: English
Under the supervision of Professor Jonis Agee
Lincoln, Nebraska. May, 2014
Abstract
This thesis consists of three chapters of a novel in progress. Getting Out is the story of Joel and Sarah Bauer, a couple in their mid-twenties who teach at an international school in Maracaibo, Venezuela. They are struggling to break the news to Sarah’s conservative Christian parents, Bill and Cindy, that they are planning to make a career as international teachers instead of returning home as previously planned. Anticipating that Bill and Cindy will receive the news poorly, Joel and Sarah have decided to fly her parents to Maracaibo to break the news. But on the morning of her parents' arrival, one of the students at the school is kidnapped, exacerbating the already tense situation as the couple tries to control Sarah’s parents’ perspective of their lives in Venezuela and conceal their skepticism of their former belief system. The novel explores themes of identity as the protagonists, exposed to a new world and a new way of life, struggle to reconcile this new world with the remnants of the old one. They struggle with the external conflict in the pressure of family relationships and internal conflict in trying to create a new understanding of their place in the world.
Advisor: Jonis Agee
Comments
Copyright 2014, Martin M. Chaffee. Used by permission