Jungle Zoo City People is a collection of seven short stories revolving around the central theme of family. Other recurring themes are mental health, self-esteem, violent influences, and the consumption of television and media. The three stories "Stunts," "Hypotheses," and "Comments," are linked by narrators of the same family with the intent of showing family trauma at the generational scale. Two stories, "City Date" and "Illiterate Photographer" are linked by a fantastical setting placed thousands of years in the future in a city cohabited by humans and animals. These pieces heavily rely on the imagery of animals and plants to explore themes of mental health. Particularly, "City Date" compares anxiety and low self-esteem to the state of being prey, and "Illiterate Photographer" follows a character whose mental condition serves as a hyperbolic portrayal of ADHD, trying to rediscover his place in the city's ecosystem. The story "Anthropology Paper" experiments with its form to allow its narrator to examine the value of his family's history. Similarly, "Voicemail: Re-hoarding" uses the unconventional form of a voicemail to experiment with voice and explore the value of physical possessions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd2023-1258 |
| Date | 01 January 2024 |
| Creators | Ahlquist, Justin C |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024 |
| Rights | In copyright |
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