My assignment for the fourth quarter term paper was to choose an American author from an approved list and build an essay discussing the themes present in that author's writing. I chose Andre Dubus, a writer of short fiction, for two reasons - I wanted a contemporary author, and I thought that I could gain a better understanding of his writing from a series of short stories than I could from a single novel. I chose four stories that seemed to vary in plot and themes. "Miranda Over The Valley" is about a young woman's decision to have an abortion. "The Winter Father" deals with a recently divorced father trying to keep a normal relationship with his two children. "Killings" is about a father who seeks revenge on his son's murderer. And "Adultery" is about a woman in an unsatisfying marriage who seeks new love and passion elsewhere...