The Gala

This honors thesis is an extended work of fiction, in which I utilize the dystopian or anti-utopian genre to explore themes of alternate social realities and the complexities of human, especially inter-family, relationships. The near-future society depicted in this novella attempts to eliminate personal agency and decision-making by replacing it with random chance; marriage matches, housing decisions, and careers are all blindly selected out of a box by each citizen. The story follows 22-year-old Lily Pierce as she completes her Gala, or marriage ceremony, and experiences the trials of life in a society that claims itself as a utopia