Date of Graduation
Fall 2015
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Wayne Blackmon
Abstract
This thesis comprises the first fourteen chapters of a fiction entitled "Sisters Before the Fall", which brings to the forefront extreme, yet, real abuses faced by women in the Middle East and the northeastern countries of Africa. Those abuses are the result of social, political, and cultural influences, and include general repression of women and girls, female genital mutilation, marriage of prepubescent girls, and the slave trade. A female American volunteer and a female Hispanic doctor meet these women in a humanitarian compound in western Sudan. As they work together to overcome challenges brought on by war, they realize they are sisters, regardless of their backgrounds, experiences, and previous prejudices. Many female writers have written nonfiction and fictional works regarding these abuses, but no one has placed these abuses together in one narrative and included the elements of an American and Hispanic persons' perspectives.
Keywords
sisterhood, repression of women and girls, female genital mutilation, marriage of prepubescent girls, slave trade, effects of war on women and children, overcoming prejudice
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Copyright
© Heather LaNae Captain
Recommended Citation
Captain, Heather LaNae, "Sisters Before the Fall" (2015). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 1148.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/1148
