Images of a Broken World

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Images of a Broken World is a creative thesis and a collection of short stories that explore violence in all of its forms and the destiny of humanity in a world that often rejects its humanity in favor of technology. An incisive, laser-pointed interrogation of atrocity and the banal outrages that we all tolerate, inch by inch until the weight of it shatters our lives. What broke the world? This work cannot answer that. All that it can do is explore the pieces and try to puzzle out what it looked like before it shattered. A young boy is abandoned in a library and pursued by beasts that exist in his memory. A woman with a dangerous job is troubled by the daughter she left behind. A call from an old friend brings an end to an old friendship. A single act of childhood bravery haunts a man for the rest of his life. A professional mourner who cannot cry for himself cries for others. A grim messenger delivers bad news with a smile. A career woman finds herself trapped by her work in more ways than one. A man of the not-so-distant future has the appointment of his life and makes a fateful decision. Another man lives in a world so immersed in technology that decisions are no longer necessary. The tales contained in Images of a Broken World present pictures of a world that exists right outside our window and stories that that will haunt the reader long after the final page has turned.