Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Furman, Andrew

Abstract

The novel Animalia is the representation of not just human relationships, but also, of human beings’ relationships to other animals. While the story revolves around a family, the narrative as a whole is meant to bring the reader into a microcosmic ecosystem. Essentially, I am examining an ecosystem. An ecosystem, not in the traditional sense, but an ecosystem nonetheless, because the narrative is a study of how varying species of heterotrophs interact with one another for both physical and emotional sustenance. Russell Water’s story is paramount, but the animals’ affect on one another is what lies below the peak and forms the mountain (an unintentional Hemingway reference). “It has often been observed that an object in a story does not derive its density of existence from the number and length of descriptions devoted to it, but from the complexity of its connections with the different characters” (Sartre 1210). Essentially, through complex and multiple connections between the human species and other species within Kingdom Animalia, I am attempting to develop an “ecosystem” that allows for narrative progression and the interconnection of relationships and thematic elements which range from the capitalistic class system to natural selection.

Extent

156 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014..|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00004147

Format

pdf

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