Violence as a Main Attraction in" Fifth Business" by Robertson Davis.

Authors have many ways of making an uninteresting subject, like a memoir, into something that people will member and want to read again and again. Some of the ways authors have found to keep the attention of the readers is by including comedy, romance, and mystery into the novel. Though there were many things that could have been added to this novel it was the choice of Robert Davis to make violence one of the main attractions in Fifth Business, after the interesting and extremely unique character's that is. The nature of this book is very dull in general, by adding violence or violence related incidents Davis manages to keep the novel original and interesting while maintaining its integrity and substance.

The beginning of the novel, the first incident with violence starts with an argument between two boys over a sled. These boys are friends who live in the same small town and go to the same small school but come from very different backgrounds.

Dunstan

Possible self-portrait of Dunstan. Detail from the...

Dunstan playing his harp as the Devil is paying a ...

This argument results in Dunny (the Narrator) to walk away from the other boy, Percy, and go home for dinner. On his way he was followed by Percy who preceded to throw snowballs as he walked away. Dunny dodged the snowballs and in doing so one of them strayed and hit a young, pregnant woman, Mary Dempster. The hit caused Mary to take a hard fall which broke her water causing her to go into premature labor and give birth to a premature baby she named Paul. Paul's birth made Dunny feel guilty for three reasons, one was that he knew he was part of the cause that made Paul a premature baby. He also felt guilty because (even after leaving his hometown of Deptford and returning) he was questioned about the incident and...