THE FIFTH CHILD DORIS LESSING
The passage is about when dog which arrived in the family. One day, the dog does suddenly, and Harriet doesn’t know how he die.
I- The evil in Ben
- Harriet is puzzled hut has her suspicious. The life at home is destroyed. His behavior is strange: quirky laugh and an angry look
-He’s really violent; he kills the dog and the cat. He’s like a wild animal in cage, he wait all day long like a predator
-Ben is like a psychopath: watches, follows his victims. He wants until nobody is around so that he can kill quietly
- He looks himself in the room all day. He shows his teeth and growly. Only goes out at home, like a vampire
-He likes to know that people cannot control him does it on purpose. Cf: a troll, small, aggressive, violent creature. Wants to return is the nature and to be alone. He marks his territory like a wild animal
We can ask about Ben, is he a murderer or is it an animal instinct?
*murderer: premeditates and think about his crime. Happy and proud of his acts
*A. I: not really aware of the consequences of his behavior. When H tries to catch him, he move like a monster fish
II- Harriet who is a desperate mother
- He puts his mother through hell a long nightmare everyday
- People avoid the Lovatt family. There is a contrast between the beginning of the book
- Ben puts constant pressure on H. She becomes so desperate and she wants Ben die too. She hopes he will get killed in the traffic. // when she was pregnant. She took tranquilizers to stop the pain. Perhaps indirectly kill Ben inside her
- It’s not the first time she wanted Ben to die.
- She has to look Ben up in his room to protect the other children from him
- Indirectly Ben makes H focus in him with his stupid acts. He becomes the focal point of H’s life
- Relationship: no maternal instincts. She is like a policeman with a bad guy. But at the same time, she wants to save him. H paradoxical feeling. She wants him dead but she wants to save