The fifth child is the story of David and Harriet Lovatt, a couple who met at an office party neither of them wanted to be at, where they soon found each other. Both of them have a rather traditional mindset and believe that marriage, fidelity and a large family is more important than a successful career or sexual liberation which was the norm at the time. It didn’t take long before they started talking about having children, but decided to wait until Harriet could quit her job in two years so they could afford the mortgage of their victorian house that they decided to buy. Although in a moment of passion they ignored their plans and Harriet got pregnant with their first child, Luke. Eventually they came to have more children until they had 4 in total and both of them couldn’t be happier. Their dinner table was always crowded with relatives and friends. And they decided that they didn’t want more children. However, in a turn of events, Harriet got pregnant again. This time with Ben, their fifth child. Not long into the pregnancy Harriet notices that this child was different. Ben was moving very early, and very violently inside her. Harriet went through a very difficult birth and Ben was born 1 month early, But it’s not until she looks at her fifth child that she knows that she can’t love him like the other children because he was too abnormal. The problems with Ben started early in his development. He became very strong and aggressive and beating his siblings was not out of the ordinary. But it was not until a few days after the christmas holidays that Ben’s true colours were shown. One of the guests in the Lovatt’s household brought a dog with them, a terrier. Immediately Ben took a peculiar interest. Wherever the dog was... ... middle of paper ... ...ity that perhaps the main antagonist wasn’t completely to blame and perhaps start a discussion about whether parents can be the reason a child becomes mentally disturbed. I wanted my text to be long enough to cover the main idea, but short enough to leave room for discussion about the topic. To achieve this I wrote a short summary of the book in order to introduce the parenting aspect to people who perhaps had not read the book yet and to try to give an explanation to why Ben was the way he was instead of just describing him as evil. I have tried to keep a serious tone but not overly so, which could perhaps bore the readers/listeners and by using words such as neglect, stigmatised, freak, monster in order to capture the essence of the text and perhaps show how the projection of evil and the expectations of others can affect someone; I believe I have achieved this.
It was times throughout the book the reader would be unsure if the children would even make it. For example, “Lori was lurching around the living room, her eyebrows and bangs all singed off…she had blisters the length of her thighs”(178).Both Lori and Jeannette caught fire trying to do what a parent is supposed to do for their child. Jeannette caught fire at the age of three trying to make hotdogs because her mother did not cook for her leaving Jeannette to spend weeks hospitalized. She was burnt so bad she had to get a skin graft, the doctors even said she was lucky to be alive. The children never had a stable home. They were very nomadic and a child should be brought up to have one stable home. No child should remember their childhood constantly moving. This even led to Maureen not knowing where she come from because all she can remember is her moving. The children had to explain to her why she looked so different is because where she was born. They told Maureen “she was blond because she’d been born in a state where so much gold have been mined, and she had blue eyes the color of the
He has endured and overcame many fears and struggles, but during this section, we truly acquire an insight of what the little boy is actually like – his thoughts, his opinions, his personality. Contrary to his surroundings, the little boy is vibrant and almost the only lively thing around. I love him! He is awfully appalled by the “bad guys” and shockingly sympathetic toward dead people. For example, when the father raided a house and found food, the little boy suggested that they should thank them because even though they’re dead or gone, without them, the little boy and father would starve. My heart goes out to him because he is enduring things little boys should never go through, even if this novel is just a fictional
The book begins by providing insight into his mother’s pregnancy, noting the difficult decisions she
In the end, the narrator’s only describable tendency is of that of an antihero. Chastising society for both the condition of the children and forcing this adoption onto the staff of this hospital. Yet through this perpetual motion, he perseveres forward.
“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness” – Aristotle. I generally like to start off an essay with a quote that seems to encapsulate the whole feeling or energy of the novel or in this case a biography that seemed to resonate with myself the most. This was quite a different book to read in that I had never read a book about someone written completely by someone else. I found some bits of this book to be quite engaging, but yet other parts seem to fall short, because I am not musically inclined whatsoever and found it to be quite difficult to follow, but the parts that discussed the peculiar parts and bits of Glenn’s life were quite riveting to read. Glenn’s upbringing seemed to be different from the “typical” Canadian kid’s life. His parent’s did not seem to work as a team that is needed in raising a child. In this essay I will be discussing about how both Glenn’s mother and father played a very large part, but in very different ways. Both parents had polar opposite parenting styles and Glenn responded very differently to them and he also formed unique attachment styles to each of his parents. “Family Stages of Development” also is something that I think can be discussed in this essay and seems to go hand and hand with attachment styles and parenting styles. Glenn’s upbringing is something I think is very unique and very unlike any other kids his own age. A lot of parents especially in that day and age expected their sons to play sports especially hockey and their daughters would maybe be the musically inclined ones. This is a bit like nature vs. nurture and in Glenn’s situation it seemed to be very much dominated by the nurture side of things. I think that a person’s upbringing is very much dominated...
The biggest type thing that I picked up on in this book was neglect to the children. The definition of child
The essay begins with a description of the author's childhood, the difficulties that he faced as a child with rage issues living with parents who tried to suppress exposure to anything that might trigger it. This is a powerful way to begin this type of argument. By describing a child facing stress and difficulty living within the strictures of parents who do not understand his needs, he immediately creates a sympathetic response from a majority of his readers. Because that child is him, he has therefore created a sympathetic emotional bond between the reader and his own arguments. Even if the reader instinctively disagrees with those arguments, this bond must still ameliorate the negative response somewhat. Jones continues this tactic throughout the essay, repeatedly describing the personal stories of children who had difficulties growing up, and how v...
According to Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, about ninety-three Canadians have consumed alcohol their whole life. Why is this important? The novel As She Grows by Lesley Anne Cowan, written in Toronto, is based around Snow, just fifteen, who grew up without a mother or father. She was raised by her grandmother, a well-meant but mentally unstable alcoholic. Her grandmother is part of those ninety-three Canadians who have consumed alcohol their whole life. All of these people can potentially abuse alcohol, and their children would be affected by bad parenting similar to Snow. In this essay, I will be analyzing Snow’s relationship with her alcoholic grandmother, and consider the effects of bad parenting, through negative effects
Before the trials even begin, Ann’s attempt to have children haven’t been very successful. Out of eight little infant babies, who haven’t even lived for a full day, Ruth Putnam was the only one who survived. Nothing makes a mother depressed more than the inability
The story leads the reader on an exploratory journey to witness the neglect by Emily's extremely guilty mother. This is described by the children's cry when they are left with strangers, lacking attention and love due to the fact she is a single parent at a time where this was not commonly accepted in the community, causing a lot of emotional distress.
Carson’s story begins in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of eight with the departure of his father, leaving young Ben, his brother Curtis, and his mother to fend for themselves. Young Benjamin immediately began to notice changes in what once had been a financially stable family, and that his family would now be forced to struggle to get by. With only a third grade education Carson’s mother was forced to take on two, sometimes three jobs to provide for her two boys. Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind in school; in fifth grade, Carson was at the bottom of his class. His classmates called him "dummy" and he developed a violent, uncontrollable temper.
Parental influences can negatively impact a child’s life. An example of this is in the novel
Though the father's influence was quite indirect; he mostly figured in their afterglow and rather idealistic fancies, both of them became decent and hard-working people. At the age of seventeen, Ben left his home for Alaska, but soon found himself in Africa and at twenty-one he was already rich. He spent the rest of his life in Africa where he died. He was a wealthy, influential and successful man and fathered seven children. He preferred to be brutal but effective, as befits the jungles of life. On one of his brief visits to Willy's home he admonished Biff, his nephew: "Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way."
Caldwell, Tracy M. “The Negative Effects Of Parent And Child Conflict.” Literary Theme: The Negative Effects Of Parent & Child Conflict (2006): 1-5. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
Benjy is a speechless “idiot”, who can’t really do anything to get things straight, yet he can sense when something good or bad is happening. When anything bad happens, all Benjy does is moan and cry. Benjy remembers all the bad things that happened to him. Benjy wanted his mother to love him and always be there for him, yet she didn’t care much about him and never really loved him, which is why at a young age, Caddy took care of Benjy.