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thedisablednaturalist · 21 days

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Banning LGBTQ+ content and people from the public view kills children

Refusing to teach comprehensive sex education kills children

Refusing to put limits on firearms/assault weapons kills children

Defunding social safety nets kills children

Homeschooling with no oversight kills children

Punishing staying home when sick kills children

Not masking in public kills children

Sweatshops and exploitative farming kills children

Lack of universal healthcare kills children

Banning the use of puberty blockers kills children

Forced birth kills children

Crumbling infrastructure especially in underfunded schools due to income tax cuts for the wealthy kills children

Environmental racism, climate change, and pollution kill children

Antivaxxers kill children

War kills children

Displacement kills children

Homelessness kills children

Genital mutilation of intersex babies kills children

Nuclear weapons kill children

Genocide kills children

Industrial deregulation kills children

Naturalization/assimilation kills children

Denial of amnesty kills children

Separation from family kills children

Antisemitism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and racism kills children

Why do you only care about kids when they aren't born yet?

I know, it's because you'd rather your kid be dead than possibly go against your personal beliefs.

I know, because only certain groups of kids are dying

#wrenfea.exe #protect the children #think of the kids #im sick and tired of people fighting against things that aren't harmful to children #while supporting things that directly or indirectly literally lead to the child dying prematurely #supporting systems that fail them #why do you think the birth rates are going down? children are no longer safe in this world #but sure its the gay couple next door who are filling mass graves with the bodies of children and babies #you think jesus or god is on your side? one that favors violence instead of love and community?#you really think that protecting earth or appreciating the beauty and diversity of all aspects of our universe #is against god? the fucking guy you believe is all powerful and CREATED it?#im sick of kids and teens being driven to suicide #im sick of children getting raped and denied abortions #its fucking devastating that any kid is forced to go hungry #or that any kids have to drink contaminated water and play on contaminated ground #that kids have to be prepared for a guy with an easily accessible assault rifle to come and shoot them and their classmates + teachers #that kids have to watch their families be literally torn apart by bombs and gunfire #it haunts me everyday thinking about what happened to Hind #and what happened at uvaldie #shitheads will be blocked on sight

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thefifthbusiness · 7 years

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Group Discussion

The other day, I met with my group member Carolyn to discuss Fifth Business. We discussed a variety of topics, including Freudian/Jungian psychology in the novel and how the novel reflects Canadian identity.

Freudian and Jungian Psychology

After studying some Freudian and Jungian psychology in class, we became acutely aware of how pertinent Freud and Jung’s theories are in Fifth Business

Archetypes

Many of the characters fit into specific archetypes. This could be attributed to the fact that Dunstan, who is obsessed with stories and myths, is the narrator. Applying archetypes in his recounting of the novel could be him trying to place himself and his life into a story of his own.

The Rich Young Prince: Boy Staunton

Boy comes from a reasonably wealthy background, and rises to become one of the wealthiest and most successful people in the country. He is preoccupied with satisfying his material needs, as well and his thirst for power.

He looks up to Prince Edward of Wales, and he likes to portray himself as a good-looking, vivacious young man.

The Bully: Boy Staunton

From the snowball incident during his childhood, to his abuse of Leola, to his treatment of his son, to his interaction with Paul, Boy is always a bully.

He puts his own needs above everyone else’s.

He likes to be dominant and in control.

The Hero: Dunstan

The town views him as a war hero when he enlists and when he returns to Deptford with a Victoria Cross.

He also willingly plays the part of the hero when he receives the Victoria Cross for clearing the machine gun nest at Passchendaele. He does not believe that he is a hero because he believes that what he did was purely due to luck. I also suspect that he feels guilty that he is being honoured for killing innocent men without even giving them a chance to surrender, which demonstrates his heroic values.

The Fifth Business: Dunstan

He spends most of the novel telling the stories of other people’s successes, while he himself remains a humble scholar. (see more about Dunstan’s role as Fifth Business below)

The Damsel in Distress: Leola

She is the victim of Boy’s bullying and ends up dying in despair when she can take his abuse no longer

She makes a feeble attempt to reach out to Dunstan for salvation when she addresses him in the suicide note that she writes when she fails to kill herself.

The Great Mother: Diana

Diana takes care of Dunstan when he wakes up from his coma. She feeds him, changes him, and re-teaches him how go about doing ordinary things, such as eating, with his physical disabilities.

Diana renames him Dunstan instead of Dunstable.

Dunstan refuses to marry her because she reminds him too much of his mother and he does not want to be tied down to another woman who will be in control of his life.

The Great Mother: Mary

Dunstan treats Mary like his own mother, by caring for her unconditionally as she ages.

Dunstan mourns her death as deeply as a son would mourn the death of a mother.

Mary is one of the only people that Dunstan trusts, especially during his childhood in Deptford. Dunstan associates her with safety, trust, and even love. It is clear that Dunstan looks towards her for motherly affection when he is about to die at Passchendaele and sees her face in the face of the Madonna statue.

Wise Old Man/Father Figure: Padre Blazon

He gives Dunstan advice on life, such as “learning to grow old”, and well as advice on what Dunstan should do about Mary Dempster.

The Magician: Paul

Paul is literally a magician.

Although he comes from a dysfunctional family and was bullied during his childhood, Paul rises to create a successful life for himself. He runs away to join the circus and develops his talent until he is able to put on his own show and travel the world in fame. Because Paul created a life for himself when he was given so little, you can say that he created something out of nothing, just as a magician would.

Rebirth: when Dunstan awakes from his coma in the hospital

Dunstan “dies” in the fall, which is considered to be the season of death, and awakes in spring, the season of birth and renewal.

He has suffered injuries which have disfigured his body, physically making him a new person.

He must relearn how to do everyday things such as eating, walking, etc.

He is renamed Dunstan instead of Dunstable

Diana acts as his mother (see above)

Oedipus Complex

The Oedipus Complex is the tendency for a child to be attracted to his mother. Dunstan demonstrates an Oedipus Complex with two different women: Diana Marfleet and Mary Dempster. When Dunstan awakes from his coma, Diana acts as his mother by caring for him and re-teaching him basic skills. Dunstan and Diana later pursue a romantic relationship, and they even consider moving to Canada together to get married and live on a farm. Dunstan’s obvious attraction to Diana, who he even admits reminds him of his mother, shows that he is attracted to mother figures in his life. Moreover, Dunstan admits to being in love with Mary Dempster when he was a child. This could easily be dismissed as a boyhood crush on an older woman, but Dunstan sees Mary as a mother figure to him, which is evident in the fact that he cares for her unconditionally, and when he sees her face in the face of the Madonna when he is about to die. Because Dunstan admits to being in love with two mother figures in his life, it is obvious that he has an Oedipus Complex.

Anima and Animus

It is believed that each person has both Anima (female attributes) and Animus (male attributes) in their shadow. If a person suppresses either one, they are likely to become bullies or to have other deep character flaws. In the novel, Boy can be considered as someone who completely rejects his anima. He is very dominant, and is only focuses on feeding his physical needs. He is materialistic, has multiple affairs, and wants to occupy a powerful position, first in his business, and later in the government. At the end of the novel, he refuses to submit to Paul as they undergo a battle of dominance, each one trying to demonstrate that they are superior to the other. His refusal to admit that Paul has dominance over him also leads him to refuse to admit ever throwing the snowball that caused Paul’s premature birth, which in turn leads to death, either directly or indirectly depending on interpretation of the novel.

The Shadow and the Persona

Mary is one of the only people that Dunstan trusts. Because of Mary’s brain damage, she does not feel shame and is therefore always honest about her thoughts and intentions. This is shown in her interaction with Joel Surgenor, a tramp whom attempts to rape Mary, but whom Mary ends up willingly having sex with as an act of charity to the poor man who “wanted it so badly”. Mary is shunned by the rest of the town because this was seen as scandalous, especially since she is married and was having sex in a public place. Mary is not preoccupied by the whispers from the other townspeople and is only concerned with doing this poor tramp a favour. Mary’s lack of filtering and pure intent demonstrates how Mary is all Shadow. The Shadow is also known as the unconscious, and contains all of the wide abundance of characteristics that make each person who they are. The Shadow is normally filtered by the Persona, which only allows certain elements of the Shadow to be seen in a personality. These selective elements of the shadow changes depending on the situation that the person is in. In contrast, Dunstan does not trust his mother at all after the egg incident, during which his mother became hysterical with anger at him for no apparent reason, and then went right back to being a loving mother just as quickly. His mother’s mercuriality causes Dunstan to mistrust her, since he does not really know what her true intentions are. This is because Dunstan’s mother, like every other person in the world, has a Persona that changes in different situations.

There were many other elements of Freudian and Jungian Psychology that we wanted to explore, but we ran out out of time and decided to discuss other topics.

Canadian Identity

Since our interviews are going to focus mainly on how the novel relates to Canadian identity, Carolyn and I shared our ideas on this subject. We both came to the conclusion that Canada is the Fifth Business of the world. Fifth Business is defined as a character who is not important in and of itself, but is still crucial to the development of the plot. Because Canadian achievement on an international level is often neglected, Canada can be considered Fifth Business. First, Canada is often seen as Britain’s child or America’s little brother, and is often forgotten because of the prominence of it’s allies. For example, Americans claim that they were instrumental in turning the tide of the war, when in reality, they only joined when the war was pretty much decided. Meanwhile, Canada followed Britain’s call to action, and, even though the Canadian army was small, it was also recognized as having some of the most fearsome fighters. Canadian influence during the First World War is anything but negligible. Second, Canada does generally not fight its own wars; rather, Canada provides supports to other countries such as America and Britain as they go to fight their own battles. This means that Canada does not often take centre stage in international conflicts, but we are still instrumental to the course of the historical events. Canada’s quiet importance on the world stage is similar to Fifth Business characters in plays and opera, or in this case, it is similar to Dunstan in the novel. Dunstan is the Fifth Business of Fifth Business, which is demonstrated by the fact that he does not have a particularly remarkable life on his own. He is somewhat of a loner and spends his days developing his spirituality and knowledge. Nevertheless, he has a lot of influence on more important characters such as Boy and Paul, and his friendship with the two men is what brings them together before their reunion brings about the end of the novel. Even though Dunstan does not stand out as a remarkable character, he is still a vital character in the novel, just like how Canada is still a vital player on the world stage.

We discussed so many different aspects of the novel, that I do not have time to write all of them down here. In addition to discussing other elements of Freudian and Jungian psychology, we also elaborated on different Canadian aspects of the novel such as the setting, and different themes in the novel relating to isolation, coming to terms with one’s past, guilt, and deception.

#journal entry 1 #journal entry

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