Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only.This memoir focuses on a past friendship the narrator develops with Will, whom she meets through Marissa, their mutual friend. Will and Marissa date, but the relationship becomes toxic and abusive, while the narrator often plays the role of mediator and middle-man. Marissa finally manages to extricate herself from the relationship, but Will and the narrator continue to spend time together and become close. The narrator feels a friendly duty to remain close to Will, but the friendship also affords her a certain amount of intimacy, which she lacks in her current romantic relationship; however, the narrator's relationship with Will eventually sours, as he begins to assert more power and control over her. Part of the narrator's struggle is realizing that
her friendship has become abusive, and that Will's growing desire for control and power,
needing to know where she is and who she is with and demanding all of her time and attention is actually a form of abuse. Another part of her struggle is realizing how she got into her predicament. This memoir is grounded in a tradition of storytelling, memoir and relationship
narratives, and is intended to join in the literary conversation about unhealthy relationships and shed some light on reader's understandings of abuse.Department of EnglishThesis (M.A.
