One Person Away From You

In my thesis, One Person Away From You, the primary theme explored is existential dread refracted through the lens of faith. The characters, in the collection, are searching for lasting and meaningful connections, with the world, and with one another, in order to give meaning to the sad and brief act of living. The stories focus on characters who are acutely aware of the gap between thought and speech. The essays in the collection deal more explicitly with the themes of absent fathers, both spiritual and physical, and the narrator's attempt to find truth in the vicissitudes of life in the twenty-first century. The collection as a whole seeks to explore the brief illuminations, sudden shifts of perspective, and ways in which we seek meaningful connection in an increasingly solipsistic society.