Fifth Business: Summary and Analysis

The story starts out with Dunstable, who lives in a quaint village in Canada. He starts telling his story because he is writing to the headmaster at Colborne College. He and his friend Percy Boyd Stanton get into a fight and Percy throws a snowball at Dunstable. Dunstable dodges, but the snowball hits Mrs. Dempster. This causes her to go into labor, giving birth to Paul. Dunstable talks about how this made him feel. Awful. He hated that he was involved with the premature birth of Paul. Dunstable becomes friends with Mrs. Dempster, who ends up messed up in the head because of what Percy did. Dunstable and a chunk of the town later find Mary having sex with a hobo. Her justification was that "he wanted it so badly." Dunstable goes off to war. He charges a German machine gun nest. Right be fore he passes out due to a flare, he sees the Virgin Mary. He wakes up six months later in a hospital. There, he meets Diana, a nurse. He has his first sexual encounter with her, but then dumps her. Before he leaves, she rechristens him Dunstan. He goes and gets his MA at the University of Toronto. He finds out that Percy now goes by Boy. He's also married to Leola, who he treats like trash. Leola gives birth to totally-Percy's child, Edward. He runs into the man Mary was having sex with earlier, Joel Surgeoner. Boy is making a fortune during the great depression. Leola dies of "pneumonia." Dunstan then goes down to Mexico City. There he watches a magic show. The head magician is none other than Paul. Dunstan meets Liesl, the circus' bearded lady. He catches a glimpse of Liesl kissing his new found love, Faustina. This makes him pretty frickin' sad. Liesl tries to rape Dunstan. His actions with Faustina were awful. He then consents and has sex with her. Liesl tell his then about the role of "Fifth Business." Mary Dempster dies. Boy is found dead in a car "accident." A small rock is found in his mouth. Lastly, Dunstan finishes his letter to the headmaster.

Our class's theme statement was in today's society, people are so self-centered that they cannot recognize or appreciate truth. This is supported by Liesl telling Dunstan that he has "never led a full life." Liesl is a Jungian hermaphrodite. She is a whole character, unlike Dunstan who is an animus. Liesl understands the world and Dunstan does not. He never accepts his role at "Fifth Business." Dunstan never realizes his role as the sidekick in the story. He is fixated on the idea that he is the reason all of these weird events occur. In other words he is self-centered. He thinks his role is a lot larger than it actually is. This is why Dunstan is never able to accept truth.

Summary and Analysis

This month we started gearing into AP mode. We went through a lot more practice with essays. I needed some serious help with this. Thankfully, I have been slowly getting better with essays.

We finished discussing Frankenstein as well. I felt that our discussions were very unproductive and did not lead to a theme that the class agreed on. I for one hated it. We completely left out prejudice and man's predisposition to hate. We kept talking about the natural order and predestination. Yes, there are elements in there, but we forgot to talk about the people's determination to hate the monster. They all judged him. That says a lot about society. However, I was not willing to get into a large argument with the class, especially when only the input of a select few is respected.

We read Fifth Business as our last book this year. I personally did not like it. Dunstable's writings just annoyed me. I thought he was a interesting character, but the way the book was executed was a little poor, like in Frankenstein. I like the themes, but they didn't stick with me the way Frankenstein's did. Maybe once we do some more digging, I'll come around.

Frankenstein Summary and Analysis

The story starts with a man named Walton traveling in the Arctic Circle. He meets Victor Frankenstein, who begins to tell him his life story. Victor lived a good life with his family and his adopted sister Elizabeth. In his college years, he creates a "monster" out of human remains. The Monster is hideous, so Frankenstein does what he does best and runs away from his problem. He continues to live his life until he hears about the death of his cousin. Curious, he goes back home and is met by the Monster. The Monster, who is now articulate and intelligent, tells Victor about his life, like the family in the cottage and his readings of books like Paradise Lost. At the end of his story, he commands Victor to make him a female companion so they can live a life away from society. Victor agrees, but then soon goes back on his word. He refuses and faces the wrath of the Monster. The Monster kills his wife. Victor chases him all the way to the Arctic Circle. Victor meets Walton, tells Walton his story and then dies. The Monster shows up and tells Walton that he will be committing suicide.

Frankenstein tries to play God, but it ultimately fails. He lacks the charisma and the power to fill that role. When he sees the Monster he runs away, being a classic deadbeat dad. He does this because he created the Monster in his own image, and his own image is so horrifying, all he can do is run away. The Monster represents something scary to the people of the world, the result of breaking the natural order. This frightens them so the Monster is then ostracized. He is also the direct result of people  judging a book by its cover. People jump to conclusions, thus missing out on a great mind in their society.

2005 Part B: Free Response

Students must pick a character that conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly and analyze how this tension contributes to the meaning of the work.

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, characters must deal with conformity to their surroundings. No character better exemplifies this than Victor Frankenstein's own creation, the Monster.  The Monster lives in a world that despises him. He eventually conforms to society's wishes, taking his own life, showing that people who do not fit with the majority or who are different, are cast offs.

The Monster was unwillingly brought into the world. Like a child, he discovers and enjoys life. He only gets upset when he finds out that his "father," Victor Frankenstein, abandoned him. Victor is the first one to cast off his own Monster. He runs at the sight of the Monster. This abandonment is only the first of many for the Monster. Even his own creator saw him as an ugly, hulking beast. Here, the Monster questions why he was brought into the world with no father figure to look after him.

The people in the world hate the Monster and only for his looks. The blind old man has no problems with the Monster. He treats him like a human. However once the son comes back, the Monster is chased out of the house. The Monster does not even have time to explain himself. He realizes that he is different earlier when looking at his reflection, however, he realizes that society will never accept him from his encounter with the family. The Monster asks why society must hate him for his appearance.

After all of this rejection, the Monster finally realizes that the world will not accept him, so he asks his creator to make a female companion for him. Victor Frankenstein won't even help him there; damning him to a life of solitude. After witnessing Victor's death, the Monster does exactly what society wants him to; kill himself. The Monster realizes that he does not belong in society because of his difference in appearance. Society cast off the monster and would like to think that he does not exist. He conforms to society's wishes, his own suicide. His questions lead him to the only solution.

The Monster lives in a judgmental society where conformity can lead to rejection. The Monster eventually conforms by killing himself. He questions inwardly as to why society must hate him, and why he was brought into a world just to suffer. The Monster questions and then finds that the only solution is suicide. 

Open Prompt Part 1: 2005

Student 3A
This essay gets the job done. Granted, its handwriting is equivalent to a three year old amped up on Monster but the words on the page say otherwise. I have not read The Scarlet Letter After a not so great thesis paragraph, everything else is spot on, from the author's voice, to the examples and lack of plot regurgitation. Sure a lot is said, but none of it is filler. All of it is used to talk about, and support the thesis at hand. Congrats Student 3A you get an eight. Bet you couldn't wait to get that score back from me.

Student 3B
I have also not read A Doll's House. I liked this essay, although not as concise as it could be. Some of the middle paragraphs have some plot summary that is not needed, but it does not detract from the overall essay. It flows well between ideas, but falls short of a nine for lack of concision. Don't worry Student 3B, I'd lose point there too. I'd give this essay a seven.

Student 3C
Surprise, I never read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I felt like I didn't need to while reading the essay. It is bogged down with unnecessary fluff. The thesis paragraph is too long. It does not get to the point fast enough. The conclusion has some of the same problems, but is not to the extent of the thesis paragraph. While not part of the AP grading, this writer took huge indents between paragraphs. I would have given this a five.

Response to Course Materials

This month we finished Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I enjoyed this play, but I couldn't really tell you why. I just enjoyed it. It was unlike anything else I had read before. From the breaking of the fourth wall, to the expansion on a play I knew and love, and the humor in the play, I loved every word of it.

We had some more practice writing essays as well. I need a lot of help, although I do not feel like I'm wallowing in a sea of incompetence anymore. Only a pond. I think that my best writing was done in my Open Prompt Part 2: 2004, although that is not for me to decide.

Lastly, we finished Frankenstein. I love this book, and it is definitely one of my favorite books. It reveals some unsettling conclusions about the nature of man. I would be lying if I said that I have never judged anyone by their looks. I probably would have judged the monster for what he looked like, not for who he was.

All in all, it was a good month. I can't wait to do more.

Open Prompt Part 2: 2004

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein asks "Is it better to be alive and damned, or never to have lived at all?" Shelley offers an answer to this: no. She shows her answer through Frankenstein's Monster. The monster lives a life ostracized by society, eventually choosing to end his own life rather than suffer in a society that hates and fears him.

Frankenstein's Monster lives his life with people fearing him just by his looks. For instance, the blind old man accepts him, but then he is chased out when people who are not blind see him. Why live in a society that cannot move past your looks? Shelley makes a point about his intelligence as well. The Monster read classics such as Paradise Lost and is articulate, forming mature thoughts and ideas about the world.

The Monster also loves the world that he lives in, but the world will not love him back. He has a childlike curiosity about the world around him. He explores and learns by trial and error, like when he learns about fire. He has nothing but love to give. But then, he realizes that he has been abandoned by his creator and that the world is too closed minded for him to be accepted. His own creator would not even give him a companion to live with to lessen his pain.

The Monster eventually chooses to commit suicide by self-immolation so that no trace of his existence will plague the world. He lived a damned life that was so terrible, he saw no other way to stop the pain other than his own suicide. The Monster's life was nothing but pain. His damned life was horrendous in every way possible with constant suffering. Shelley says no to the aforementioned question, it is better to have never lived.

Shelley's Frankenstein displays a frightening image of the nature of man. The Monster's suffering was so much so that he took his own life to make the suffering stop. The Monster would have been better of if he had never been alive in the first place.