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Dunny Takes The Fifth Essay examples

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Dunny Takes The Fifth

The roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante

nor Villian, but which were none-theless essential to bring about the

Recognition or the denoument...Fifth Business, as defined in the book. The

book Fifth Business is testimony of events in the life of the main character

Dunstable (later renamed Dunstan) Ramsay. Dunstan feels that his whole

life has been spent as the "fifth business" in the lives of others. There is a lot

of truth and relevence to this. Dunstan was the "fifth business" in the lives

Paul and Mary Dempster, and Boy Staunton because he altered their lives

without it ever being distinctly for the better or worse. …show more content…

A lot of the events that changed Pauls life also effected that of Mary

Dempster. The same "snowball" that caused the premature birth of Paul also

greatly altered the life of Mary. Mary suffered mentally and was said to have

gone "simple"(24) after Pauls shockingly sudden birth. Dunstan's daily visits

to Mary Dempster seemed to help Reverend Amasa Dempster cope with his

wife's illness. If it wasn't for work that Dunny did for Mary then the

Reverend would not have been so ignorant of his wife's condition for such a

long time. Ramsay had a large effect on Mary's life without his presence

ever being that of a main character.

Unlike the alterations Dunny caused on the lives of Mary and Paul

Dempster, those of Boy Staunton were a lot more subtle. Dunny and Boy

always had a rivalry between them that was occasionally unintentional.

Dunny and Boy spent years of their life competing for Leola Cruikshank. If

this rivalry had not been there, it is possible that Boy would not have been as

attracted to Leola and therefore would not have the incentive to marry her.

This same rivalry caused the two to argue the night that the snowball was

thrown. This is the first time that Boy has used the method of denial to deal

with a problem. Boy, after noticing how well he coped with this situation,

used this method to deal with almost all his problems later in life.

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