Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation
5-2020
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
English
Degree Program
English, MA
Committee Chair
Stansel, Ian
Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)
Griner, Paul
Committee Member
Griner, Paul
Committee Member
Omer-Sherman, Ranen
Author's Keywords
memoir; trip; summer; road trip; nostalgia
Abstract
This thesis is a memoir about the best and worst of traveling on summer vacations with my family as a child and as an adult. This piece is an ode to both my parents and to the art of the family road-trip, which is all but lost thanks to cheap flights, cell phone screens, and a general reluctance to take significant time off work. By alternating between lighter and heavier material with each chapter, this memoir avoids the saccharine nature of nostalgia while still being true to all the brilliance and poignancy of the past. By telling the chapters through a timeline tracking my parents’ earliest trips, to those of my childhood, to my family’s continued reliance on summer vacations to keep us connected, this memoir explores the commonality and frailty of families when pushed to their limits—both good and bad—on the road to the next summer destination.
Recommended Citation
Sellers, Amy Jackson, "No vacancy: Family vacations on the road, on the water, and on the edge." (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4389.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/4389
