Kasper, CatherineTreviño, Jason Benjamin2024-03-082024-03-0820129781267346643https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/5972This item is available only to currently enrolled UTSA students, faculty or staff. To download, navigate to Log In in the top right-hand corner of this screen, then select Log in with my UTSA ID.What follows are several short fiction pieces and some poetry that illustrates, and, sometimes, exposes, the felt experiences of a young funeral director and embalmer, namely the protagonist "Benny," most often referred to as "The Apprentice." My work explores some of the difficulties the young "Benny" goes through during his apprenticeship. These experiences lead him to begin a process or memorialization of his family---some living, some dead. This memorialization allows the main character to find a connective trace in the penultimate chapter that blends the worlds of the living and the dead. In the end, he approaches a new kind of communion with his family through his repeated acts of communion with the dead.81 pagesapplication/pdfFictionFuneralFine artsLiteratureAmerican literatureThesis