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.