The Arrow
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Graduation Year
2025
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Program
Creative Writing
Program Director
Judy Halebsky, PhD
First Reader
Kim Culbertson, MFA
Description
In the sleepy town of Heart’s Bay lives a twelve year old boy named Oliver Blue, a boy with a tendency to live with one foot in the dreamworld and one foot on Earth. Up until now, the summer before seventh grade, this tendency has brought both wonder and hardship to Oliver’s life. But he hasn’t seen anything yet.
Oliver’s parents have just been divorced, prompting he and his mother to move across the city and into a mysterious old building. And as things in Oliver’s reality get turned upside down, so does everything he knows about the world of dream and imagination that he calls home.
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The Arrow is many things. From one angle it is a whimsical, comforting journey through the labyrinth that is the middle road, the pathway which winds between dreams and reality, childhood and adulthood, and sometimes even compassion and contempt. One might also say that The Arrow is a story about worlds torn apart, as well as the struggle that follows to mend and find peace. But perhaps most of all The Arrow is a tale, written for all ages, about the magical, dreaming child within—a fire of light that may dim with age, but which may also be rekindled.