Date of Award

Spring 5-20-2026

Document Type

Thesis (Master's)

Department or Program

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

First Advisor

Alan Lelchuk

Second Advisor

Saul Lelchuk

Third Advisor

Jamie Godley

Abstract

The Torture Never Ends is a darkly funny, emotionally charged collection of short fiction that peers beneath the surface of ordinary lives to reveal the private absurdities, quiet devastations, and fleeting redemptions we carry with us. A housewife’s diary becomes a record of rebellion against domestic invisibility; an institutional history of a medical consortium turns into a satire of ambition, scandal, and failed benevolence; a devoted reader’s love for pirate romance collapses into sinister obsession. What first appears to be a tender, if somewhat desperate, epistolary courtship becomes a study in delusion, entitlement, and violent self-mythology; and a young haunted-house performer discovers both the terror and tenderness of being seen as a monster. Together, these stories ask what it means to speak from the position of the accused, the ridiculous, the monstrous, the lonely, or the ignored. The collection treats humor not as an escape from seriousness, but as one of the highest forms seriousness can take when ordinary language fails. And inevitably, its characters are often excessive, deluded, theatrical, or absurd, yet their performances reveal a deeper desire for contact.

With sharp prose and unsettling humor, The Torture Never Ends is, at its core, an attempt to bear grim witness to strange voices under pressure. It explores what it means to live in a world where pain is quiet but constant—and where beauty still breaks through, sometimes in the most unexpected places.

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