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Date Posted: 15:00:33 08/30/04 Mon
Author: Elise
Subject: Re: Fifth Business
In reply to: Daryl 's message, "Re: Fifth Business" on 17:37:17 07/10/03 Thu

Holding on to guilt and witholding forgiveness are major themes in Fifth Business. For ideas about guilt, examine Dunstable Ramsay's motives for writing his letter. He is mostly trying to make sense of his life and justify his role as "fifth business." But he is also trying to work through and explain his overwhelming feelings of guilt stemming from his involvement in the cataclysmic snowball event in his childhood. He wrestles with and tries to atone for this guilt all his life. He takes care of the Dempster family, plays with Paul, visits Mrs. Dempster in her old age. Even his hallucination of Mrs. Dempster's face on the little madonna may be seen as a manifestation of his guilty feelings. In writing Fifth Business, Ramsay is going through the process of rationalizing his role and forgiving himself. Read the part late in the novel when Boy, Dunstan, and Magnus Eisengrim are having tea at Dunstan's house and the subject of the rock in the snowball comes up. This is the climax of the interaction of those three men.

Examine also Dunstable Ramsay's relationship with his mother: he is made to feel guilty for the smallest offense, as evidenced by the severe whipping she gives him after he steals an egg. This plays a part in fostering Ramsay's propensity to feel guilt.

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