The Monument
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This thesis is an excerpt of a novel in progress titled The Monument. The central narrative follows three characters on a quest for sanctuary at the southern border in a post-collapse United States. As these characters make their way across a hostile, unforgiving landscape, they must be wary of other Americans and ever vigilant of a species of dangerous creatures that has emerged from beneath the earth. They also must contend with tensions between each other because necessity and desperation have forced this trio of incompatibles together. Along the way, their group grows as they explore the nature of cruelty and kindness and they encounter horrors that seem both nascent consequence of circumstances and fundamentally American. In the process of researching this thesis, with the generous support of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, the author traveled the route these characters take. The author intends this thesis to become a novel, which he hopes to publish in the near future.