"Let My Mountains Be"

Abstract

This thesis presents two chapters of an original novel, "Let My Mountains Be." The novel tells the story of Ruby Jamison, a woman from a small, rural southern community who struggles to sustain true happiness and stability while struggling to reunite with her daughter. In introducing "Let My Mountains Be," the writer explores the journey to wholeness through a three-part process: acknowledgement, transformation, and redemption. Alice Walker's The Third Life of Grange Copeland is used as a model for the novel. Walker's aesthetic mission and the protagonist Grange Copeland's quest for self-discovery are assessed. This thesis demonstrates how both Ruby and Grange's pursuits of unfulfilled longing wound their loved ones and themselves before they realize the pathway to fulfillment begins with self-love.