Graduation Year
2024
Date of Submission
12-2023
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Second Department
Literature
Reader 1
Literature Professor Leland de la Durantaye
Reader 2
Environmental Analysis Associate Professor Marc William Los Huertos
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
In a remote coastal home, a young girl grapples with an overwhelming sense of isolation. Her parents, scarred by a tragic accident that leaves her father in relentless pain and her mother embittered by his altered state, are trapped in a cycle of resentment. Desperate to escape the suffocating tension, the girl seeks solace in nature and begins to look for companionship in minnows to alleviate her loneliness. Yet, she realizes rapidly that this sort of connection does not fulfill her. Determined to break her solitude, she walks obsessively along the shoreline, hoping to stumble upon a more human kind of friendship.
After many weeks, she encounters a boy who seemingly knows loneliness as well as she does. At the girl’s persistence, their hesitant acquaintance unfolds and offers glimpses of potential friendship. However, amidst these possibilities, her father’s mental and physical state deteriorates until he vanishes all together, plunging the girl and her mother into a frantic search for any trace of him.
Amidst the search for her missing father, the girl confronts a hard truth: the tragedy has tainted their family with such fortitude, they seemingly cannot overcome it. She realizes her battle with loneliness will persist if she continues to allow circumstances to govern her and vows to do something about it.
Recommended Citation
Merk, Emma, "The Lives I’ve Yet to Live" (2024). CMC Senior Theses. 3532.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3532
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
