Finding Home: A Character's Quest for Equilibrium

60 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Creative Writing and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Fall 2013.In an attempt to make sense of the vast cultural differences, and systems of sexism, racism, and Westernization, that the author has experienced within their life, they have decided to write a small compilation of short stories. The essay dissects the relationship of character and self to place. The essay outlines the five basic plot lines that a place story models itself after, as well as the undeniable presence of culture within place stories. The three fictional stories following the essay concern a character's conflict with either their own culture, or an encroaching one, as well as issues of individual autonomy within that culture. The first story follows the inner turmoil of a young woman arranged to be married to a man she does not love. The second story reimagines the life of a Nissei couple decades after Internment. The third story retraces a young man's history as an attempt to explain the rape he has committed. All stories, and their characters, are entirely fictional