Henry Wait: a character study

Abstract

My thesis is an interwoven collection of autobiographical poetry and prose which portray my experiences as a drug addict. Particularly, how I started and how I stopped using drugs, potential causes and consequences of such a life, and a nuanced look at how these habits affect a person’s relationships, both platonic and romantic. The memoir starts with a first-person protagonist who discusses the idea of writing in the third person, and pretending to be someone named “Henry.” We then shift into a first-person story where the speaker clearly identifies themselves as Henry, then we go back to an anonymous first person, and so on. The reader should see by now, rather clearly, that it doesn’t really matter who the speaker is. What matters is that the narrator is conflicted and multifaceted. Lines such as “all these parts of other people,” and titles like “Let’s Not Be Ourselves” directly demonstrate this. The rest of the manuscript alternates between third and first person, as appropriate to the content and what the speaker hopes to convey. Overlapping key memories and themes help to remind the reader that it’s all the same person. Along the way, poetry is used to indicate major shifts in content, time, theme, or tone. This helps to suggest that the collection has been carefully orchestrated, and that the fragmented pieces will weave together to create a much larger narrative.