Cox, Daniel2017-06-132017-06-132014-01http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/40Better Time Than These is a compilation of eight short stories whose central themes revolve around the characters’ constant striving for goodness up against the simple human truths of hunger, weakness, honor, lust, and courage, to name a few. Some manufacture their own misery and slide into darkness, while others, by simple fate, find themselves faced with impossible situations with impossible odds. Through the gearing of the physical to the felt, these characters push the bounds of human nature by subverting the myths upon which our preconceived notions rest, calling all certainty into question. They allow us, as readers, to stack cruelty against compassion, evil against good, and give us a glimpse of the possibility of redemption and grace for even the worst of us.en-USShort storiesFateHuman natureRedemptionGood vs evilThesis