Own Way Girl

Authors

Melissa I. Aldana, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Major/Program

Creative Writing

First Advisor's Name

Julie Marie Wade

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Ricardo Blanco

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Third Advisor's Name

Donna Weir-Soley

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Member

Keywords

Nonfiction

Date of Defense

3-14-2022

Abstract

OWN WAY GIRL is a memoir about growing up in a Caribbean family of women. The memoir covers the narrator’s tentative beginnings as she was adopted by a single woman in Barbados at three months old until she turns sixteen and learns the secret that has weighed heavily on both her birth and adopted mother. This memoir explores the narrator’s layered relationship with her adopted mother, her complicated relationship with her birth mother, as well family dynamics with her adopted grandmother and adopted sisters. It interrogates the nature of kin and blood ties and probes the ultimate question of what makes a family. This memoir also touches on the themes of culture, class, cultural capital, domestic violence, death, and a young girl's quest for agency.

Identifier

FIDC010706

Recommended Citation

Aldana, Melissa I., "Own Way Girl" (2022). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4953.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4953