Abstract:
The Left & the Leaving is a fiction thesis and the early stages of a novel of the same
name. A struggling writer and manic depressive, Althea Womack abandons her children
in the summer of 1946. Her story is told through shifting narratives, each allowing the
reader one step closer to understanding the truths that seem universal to so many
Southerners: there are some content to stay, others afraid to go, many desperate to leave,
and those that cannot escape their place and their path, no matter how hard they try. This
thesis is a sample of those narratives submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at George Mason University.
