Fifth Child-Analysis of a Quotation

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Fifth Child – Analysis of a quotation on page 73 The quotation I have chosen is a conversation among Molly, Dorothy, David and Harriet held after Ben had threatened to kill Amy’s pet dog. They have a discussion of how to deal with Ben. Molly suggests that he should be sent to an institution in order to get rid of the catastrophe. Her suggestion receives immediate support from Dorothy and David. However, Harriet disagrees with them and this makes her fall into a dilemma. In this paper, I am going to discuss how difficult it is for a woman to act the proper role of a responsible mother. As seen from this quotation, the Lovatts’ family has been broken into two opposing groups. On the one hand, Molly, Dorothy and David represent the normal world while on the other hand, Harriet and Ben fall into what people consider as the abnormal world. In the words and phrases chosen by Lessing to describe Molly and Dorothy in the first paragraph such as “confronting” and “firmly taking her position”, we can see that both of them have a strong dislike towards Ben, thereby wishing to get rid of him as quickly as possible. Dorothy even accuses Harriet of being blind to their sufferings. Molly mentions the word “catastrophic” and Dorothy again repeats the word. Both of them here want to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. The word carries a strong negative emotion and calls up vivid images of destruction, violence, suffering and horror. Since Harriet is the only person in this family who really cares for Ben, she and Ben are alienated together by those normal people. She is in a dilemma. As Ben and her other four children seem to be mutually exclusive of one another, she is torn into half by these two powerful forces. Being the minority in this discussion of Ben’s future, Harriet actually disagrees with David, Molly and Dorothy. However, she is not strong enough to defend

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