Access to the collection of English theses from 2023 and earlier is restricted to RWU English faculty members for curriculum-related purposes and is not available to the public. To view or download a thesis, please contact the English Department to obtain a password.
Submissions from 2020
The Myth of the Happy, Homecoming Soldier: J.D. Salinger's Exposé on Post-War, Lexi Dubovic
Dean Moriarty, Sal Paradise, and the Mechanical Hound: Technology's Negative Impact on Society, Edward Jackson
Searching for the 'Ancient Heavenly Connection': 1950s Faith Movements and the 'Counter-Religion' of the Beats, Megan Peters
The Myth of the Happy Woman in the 1950s: Lorraine Hansberry and Adrienne Rich, Kailyn Preston
Fahrenheit 451 and A Raisin in the Sun: Nonconformity and Family and Gender Roles in the 1950s American Texts, Bridget Shea
Fahrenheit 451 and On the Road: The Critque of Family Values, Joshua Spicer
The Influence of the Court Case, Hansberry v. Lee, on the Play, A Raisin in the Sun, Caitlin Wright
Submissions from 2019
A Dirtbag’s American Dream: An Ideological Analysis of Rugged Individualism in Free Solo, Garrett Bolton
The Dark Knight of Morality v. The Clown Prince of Crime, Jennifer L. Bryan
“A Man’s (Wo)Man:”A Gender Role Critique on Seinfeld’s Elaine and Susan, Kayla Meagan Fuller
Flirting with Intolerance in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Rachel Marianna Gover
“I had no idea who I was dealing with:” Distinguishing Components of True Crime, Taylor Maria Hasseltine
“You’d Be the First Person in the History of the World”: Inescapable Ideology in The Master, Chloë Knopf
Is Austen’s Emma Clueless? -As If! -Intersectional Ideologies Inspire a NewClassic, Julia Marie Pina
“And the nicest part of all, Val, I [don’t] look just like you!:”:Unmasking the Differences Between Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, Jeannie F. Reyes
Running down the American Dream: Born to Run as a Concept Album, Michael Anthony Sannicandro
“‘Every time a Targaryen is born, the Gods flip a Coin’:The Patriarchal Flip in Game of Thrones”, Riley Elizabeth Spillane
Submissions from 2018
Lead Us Not Into Temptation and Deliver Us From Patriarchy : Biblical Appropriations of the Female Voice, Gabrielle Barnes
Hermione, a Modern-day Athena: Friendships in Harry Potter and Homer’s Epics, Vanessa Dos Anjos
'There Could Be No Doubt of His Sex,’ Gender Fluidity in Virginia Woolf s Orlando and Other Works, Jenna Noell
“Power in a Woman’s Wit and Will“: Unmasking Feminism in Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask, Samantha Painter
Sisterhood of the Traveling Fan: The Portrayal of Intimacy in Lisa See’s Snow Mower and the Secret Fan, Samantha Rocca
An Evolutionary Redefinition of the Education of Women: Jane Eyre and Hermione Granger and the Influence of the Female Voice, Emily Stoeppel
Submissions from 2017
Generation Gap in 1960s American Literature: Revolutionary Road & Sticks and Bones, Ryan Bonacum
“An Exploration in Victorian Ideologies in 1950s and 1960s American literature“, Sarah Capodagli
The Rainbow Effect: How the Fight for Civil Rights Birthed a 1960's Literary Spectrum, Max Dittmar
The Dramatization of Betty Friedan’s Idea of the Feminine Mystique in Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road, Lauren Ferreira
June Cleaver Who?: The Deterioration ofDomesticity in Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road and Sylvia Plath’s 7he Bell Jar, Julia Junker
Rubbing the Flies Out of Our Eyes: Grasping the Elusive Postmodern War Narrative, Rebecca Proulx
The Hopeless Emptiness: Women’s Mental Health Care in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road., Margaret Rawlings
An Absence of Sisterhood: Feminism Without Movement and Esther Greenwood’s Descent Into Despair in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Jacquelyn Voghel
Paved Paradise and Pushed to Depression? The Role of Nature upon Anxiety and Depression in The Bell Jar, Dorothy Wilkinson
Submissions from 2016
“First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage” … Or Not?: Revising Romantic Pre-Conceptions in Sense & Sensibility, Catherine Bass
Feminist Elements in the Pride and Prejudice I What Film Reveals in Text, Bernadette Benman
It’s NOT “only Anne”: Social Criticism in Jane Austen's Persuasion, Tori Bodozian
Fitting the “Big Bow-wow Strain” onto “Two Inches Wide of Ivory”: Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott’s Repurposing of the Gothic Novel, Caroline Conroy
What's Money Got to Do With It? Jane Austen and Marriage Equality in Pride and Prejudice, Ashlyn Dowd
Catherine Morland: Northanger Abbey’s Realistic Heroine, Ali Gowrie
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: Anne Brontë’s Autobiographical Novel, Alanna Hammond
Swords as Sharp as your Wits: Narrative Techniques and Regency Horror in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Chris McAneny
Submissions from 2015
How Chasing Dreams, Society’s Standards, and Family Members Influence a Character’s Identity in 1950s American Literature, Ben Anderson
The Difference Between Two Mothers in 1950s American Drama: A Religious God and a False God, Angelica Lee Ariola
Changing the Family Dynamic; The Loss of a Child in The Catcher in the Rye and Long Day’s Journey into Night, Brooke Bishop
“You’re All Just a Bunch of Phonies:” Uncovering the Mask of Conformity in The Crucible, The Cather in the Rye, and Fahrenheit 451., Antonia Carpenter
Escaping Disillusionment: The Tyrones’ and Guy Montag’s Struggle for Diversion through “Illicit“ Activities, Kaylynn Constantine
From Puritan Ministers to Futuristic Firemen: Alternative Settings as a Critique of 1950s Norms in The Crucible and Fahrenheit 451, Abigail DeVeuve
Brewing Up Feminism in the 1950s: Mary Tyrone’s and Beneatha Younger’s Stirring of the Pot, Eleni Dres
A 1950s Critique of the American Dream Despised, Devastated, and Deferred, Diandra Yvonne Franks
Nature Deficit Disorder in 1950s Literature: Are Holden Caulfield and Guy Montag Suffering from a Lack of “Vitamin N”?, Charlotte Herz
