The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing Essay

Due to the uncontrollable kids and the lack of support from the husband, Mrs. Johnstone developed a heart condition from all the stress. Instead of communicating to the husband, she let the problems continue. The children seem to control the situations at home instead of the parents. They controlled the activities and instead of arguing against, the parents complied. Mrs. Johnstone has a very soft approach to her kids, which the kids constantly take advantage of. In the household, the kids are not held accountable to their actions. For example, in the episode the triplets are playing with each other in their room and make a huge mess and do not pick it up. Unlike the mother, Mr.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Where Children Live” provides a nostalgic sentiment about childhood innocence and the carefree attitude that gets abandoned as children grow into adults. Using the New Criticism critical approach, I will discuss how Nye uses various literary techniques to tell the story of the childhood innocence that gets lost as people grow older. To begin, Nye organizes the poem into three separate stanzas. The first stanza describes the tone of the homes where children live. The second stanza describes what is missing from the homes where children no longer live.

Firstly, Aunt Harriet has a big influence on David, because David feels sorrow due to the situation that his aunt is going through. Aunt Harriet is talking to David’s father, "This is the third time. They'll take my baby away again like they took the others. I can't stand that - not again. Henry will turn me out, I think. He'll find another wife, who can give him proper children. There'll be nothing- nothing in the world for me - nothing. I came here hoping against hope for sympathy and help. Emily is the only person who can help me. I - I can see now how foolish I was to hope at all..." (Wyndham 71, 72) David thinks about his mother, and how she reacts to this situation, which had a negative impact on David. Later on David could not stop thinking about Aunt Harriet after the incidence, “For several nights I dreamed of Aunt Harriet lying

Around the time when David is ten and unaware of the significance of hiding his gift, he experiences a frightening confrontation that tears him away from his family. He witnesses the shunning of his beloved Aunt Harriet, an event that leads to her demise. Instead of helping her out, his parents degrade her until her will to live is lost. She responds to their conniving comments in a heartbreaking manner: “I shall ask Him if it is indeed His will that a child should suffer and its soul be damned for a little blemish of the body…. And I shall pray Him, too, that the hearts of the self-righteous may be broken.” (73) Aunt Harriet’s compelling words signify that conformity has such tight reins on its followers, that it has led them to separate a mother from her child and a sister. Furthermore, the author indirectly mentions that David is afraid of his family as they will show no mercy if he is found out, and distances himself completely. Later on, Wyndham confirms that David’s suspicions of his family turning against him are accurate. While conversing with the Sealander, he is provided with incentive to cut his ties with his mother: "There is comfort in a mother's breast, but there has to be a weaning... The cord has been cut at the other end already; it will only be a futile entanglement if you do not cut it at your end, too." (183) The heartbreaking words reveal the reality of conformity; even the impenetrable bond of a mother and son can be broken due to a toxic belief. To conclude, even the strong ties of families can be severed because of an antagonizing

Young David met Sophie in the outskirts of town stuck under a rock and he rapidly decides to help her which leads to the discovery of extra extremities on her feet. After returning Sophie home, her family immediately makes David promise not to tell a soul about her mutation or else she would be banished from their town. David follows through with his promise, but on top of that he takes it upon himself to regularly visit Sophie. They create an intense loving bond over a short period of time. In the heat of a grueling situation, Sophie and her family abruptly leave town because Alan Ervin finds out about her deviation. The love and memories that David and Sophie endured, lasts years until they meet again in a community where diversity is valued. This takes the novel to a new level of thrill, because you do not know if they will ever meet again and rekindle their

David makes a strong choice consequent to his own daughter, Phoebe, who was born with a disability known as down syndrome. The author demonstrates the audience that, “He thought of his sister, pale and thin, trying to catch her breath, and his mother turning to the window to hide her tears. ‘Don’t you see?’ he asked, his voice soft. ‘This poor child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m trying to spare us all terrible grief’”(Edwards 18). Edwards character, DAvid shows, that he fears to relive and bear that same grief upon his wife, Norah. David gets taken back to the time where, Edwards expresses “Still, he remembered the depth and endurance of his mother's grief, the way she walked uphill to the grave every morning, her arms folded against whatever weather she encountered”(Edwards 17). Having a child with a disability can cause a considerable distress on one's physical, emotional, and mental well being. Edwards character, David, feels as if he were real, because just like him, when a certain event occurs, many react in a way that is not understandable until later on, or

The other four youths fear their new kinfolk; people from the more far off family dissent about the inclination that has been appeared to Harriet and Dave and their tremendous expensive house and youngsters consistently. Ben murders pets and weakens diverse newborn children. Harriet despises and fears this tyke yet is forever bound to him by parenthood. Exactly when whatever is left of the family sends Ben away to a foundation, she finds him and brings him home. The fundamental people Ben exists together with are more prepared young fellows, a bunch of washouts and dropouts who brightly take the money Harriet pays them to "draw in" Ben for the duration of the day.

With her husband's outrages and seclusion, she did her best by taken care of the situation with care and calmness, especially in front of her children. Surely, when alone, she would breakdown from the pressure, sadness and changes. A family that would once take walks together on Sundays now had to deal with the father's outrages and drinking problems. Ben, the narrator, was only eight years old at the time and even his young fragile mind noticed that his life would forever be different.

This all changes when their fifth child comes around named Ben. Ben is not a normal child which leads me to believe that isolation did not help his situation throughout the entire story. The neglection is really showed when the narrator says “ She would like then taking care of during the day. The money would be good” (Doris Lessing 91). This is a part in the story where Ben is basically paid to be taken out of the house. There is never one time and this text where it mentions worry for Ben and who he was hanging out with. They Lovatts were just happy that he was gone. There is also this very close relation to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. “ Perhaps quite soon, in a new house should be living alone with David, she would be looking at the box, and they are, in the shot the the news of Berlin, Madrid, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, she would see Ben, standing rather Park in the crowd, staring at the camera with his cough and eyes, or searching the faces in the crowd for another of his own kind.” (Doris Lessing 130). This is the same relation that Frankenstein had with humans. He would never fit in because of his appearance. Frankenstein is just like been in the respect that he is the adam of his kind. This can only give us an inkling of what band might have felt being neglected all of his life. This quote shows that his own family betrayed him and by isolating him. He turned into a criminal trying to find where he could fit

Jane is the narrator who suffers from postpartum depression, she recently had a child, but cannot take care of it due to the fact that she is sick. Her husband John controls her life and tells her what she can and can’t do. Her sister in law cleans the house they rented for over the summer and Mary is the one who takes care of the child. As the narrator loses touch with the outer world, she comes to a greater understanding of the inner reality of her life. She starts to go insane being in the room she is in the whole time and she can’t do nothing about because her husband is controlling what she has to do. Living in today’s world she can go to therapy and also go to marriage counselling or couples’ therapy to get help with her marriage.

“Perhaps quite soon, in the new house she would be living in (alone) with David, she would be looking at the box, and there, in a shot on the News Berlin, Madrid, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, she would see Ben, standing rather apart from the crowd, staring at the camera with his goblin eyes, or searching the faces in the crowd for another of his own kind.” This quote is the last sentence at the end of the book and it really leaves the reader wondering how or where Ben is going to end up. In my opinion, this leaves the reader also with a sense of sympathy for Harriet and Ben Lovatt. They both had gone through a rough time together. Their family disliked Harriet because she took care of Ben continuosly even though he was different from the other

The caregiver is sitting on the floor with the child (6-15m.). They are putting a color shape puzzle together. The adult put one piece on, then the child put all the pieces on; now he wants to do it again putting the puzzle upside down. The infant is developing exploration and discovery in the cognitive domain, paying attention to people and objects, he saw the caregiver putting a piece he put all the pieces, attending to colors and shapes, and making things happen repeating actions. The child can also sits by himself and maintains balance while playing, developing gross motor skills, and fine motor skills through the holding of small objects such as puzzles pieces.

Ren works as a shipping clerk at Swift and Company Meatpacking Co. in National City. Renting a house, Ren is making just enough money to keep the family above the poverty level. Their fifth child who is named after her mother is born on October 30. Baby Rachel dies the same day and is buried in “Babyland.” This is a section of Mount Hope Cemetery in Belleville reserved for young children. The following year Rachel gives birth to Marjorie, who dies twelve days later and is buried near her sister’s grave. One year later the same thing happens to another baby that is also given the name of Rachel. She is buried on top of her sister, Marjorie. Three children who have been carried by Rachel for nine months have died shortly after they are born. The next year, 31-year-old Rachel gives birth to a stillborn baby, Dorothy Deloris. This is followed the next year by the same thing happening again to a baby simply listed as “Baby Hall.” Five children buried within a five year period. The emotional strain that Rachel has suffered through is

from the moment he was born. "He's like a troll, or a goblin or something."

Eliot, Wendy, Peter, and Sam are all struggling with parents who are failing to deliver on a physical and emotional level, this parent child disconnect causes these children to be forced to adapt to their situation and assert independence. Eliot is a child who is forced into the care of various baby sitters, throughout his childhood, rarely connecting with his mother. When he experiences being cared for by a woman who actually is interested in him and want to interact with him, he realizes what he is missing in his relationship with his mother, and this contrast is repeatedly exemplified throughout the story Mrs. Sen’s by Jhumpa Lahiri. Wendy and Peter are children who have been raised by an automated nursery purchased by by their parents to do the vast majority of their parenting. This causes an obvious disconnect between the children and parents. This disconnect becomes a major issue in The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. Sam is a child who feels his relationship with his mother is