In these stories, the protagonists find themselves living outside cultural mores and expectations as they confront the central questions of their lives. In doing so, they undergo a range of moral and psychological transformations. If they see themselves on some level as living in a post-modern world, they are driven by the need to recognize and accept its actuality and at the same time to seek order and meaning within its challenges and limitations. Their evolving states of consciousness are explored within their relationship to the physical world, particularly the natural world and the domestic setting.