Theses and Dissertations Collection

In spite of a disastrous trip to the Magic Kingdom, five-year-old Theo Konstantos is still able to see all its magic and possibilities, and when his family leaves two weeks later for Iraklion Air Station, beginning a cycle of his father’s seemingly endless overseas assignments, he continues to associate the Magic Kingdom with America. Iraklion and his friend Kyros remain Theo’s most treasured childhood memory. From there his family confronts the dark new reality of a festering anti-American world, which becomes more dangerous with each of his father’s tours. Eventually he becomes resentful of a father who puts his military and diplomatic career above everything else. Not surprisingly Theo longs to live in America, a place he idealizes as a kind of Magic Kingdom. Part One of the novel follows his path as a young expatriate to West Berlin, where Theo was actually born during one of his father’s previous tours of duty. In Berlin his life turns into a full-on battle with his father and to a degree his mother, who is a Berliner by birth. But in the middle of the drama of a falling Berlin Wall, he makes some discoveries about himself and his life takes yet another turn. Thesis submission makes it as far as Athens in Part One. Part Two: “Berlin Stories” focuses on Theo’s life in Berlin. Part Three: “Finally America” is the story of his long anticipated return to the U.S. where he discovers that America is nothing like he thought it was.