| Summary: | Cole Fortan, the narrator of my novel, is a character who hates himself. He's dropped out of college at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater to be the friendly, neighborhood marijuana dealer, the guy all the kids at Eskimo Joe's go to when they want to get stoned for the weekend. But he doesn't want to be that guy anymore. The truth is that Cole has been lost for a long time, and when we meet him he's drifted extraordinarily close to getting into big time trouble with the law. Cole's suppliers are under investigation and about to go down, and so is Cole. But things are more complicated than that. There's a girl he cares about (Laura), and friends he's known for a long time. Cole makes a decision to leave Oklahoma after his Christmas experience, where he lies to his grandmother about his current occupation. He gives the remainder of his stash to his friend Kyle and narrowly avoids some law enforcement types who are looking for him. From there, Cole is on the road with Florida as his destination. He is going East, and he thinks about his grandfather, who tried to stick out the Dust Bowl in Depression-era Oklahoma, but eventually had to go West to Washington, if only for a little while. In alternating chapters, Cole tells his own story, as well as the story of his grandfather (and eventually, grandmother), starting in the Dust Bowl era and moving up to the contemporary post-9/11 moment. Submitted Note: A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Degree Awarded: Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. Date of Defense: Date of Defense: March 15, 2006. Keywords: Ecoterrorism, Historical fiction, Dustbowl Bibliography Note: Includes bibliographical references. Advisory committee: Robert Olen Butler, Professor Directing Dissertation; Neil Jumonville, Outside Committee Member; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Andrew Epstein, Committee Member.
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