Fifth Business EssayEssay title: Fifth Business EssayCompetition, guilt, and the contrast between Boy Staunton and Dunstable Ramsay is what Robert Davies used to define the novel, Fifth Business. Davies portrays the idea of competition through the relationship between Boy and Dunstan in their childhood, their military recognition, and their love for Leola. Moreover, the theme of guilt is shown through the experiences of the characters as Dunstable felt guilty for the premature birth of Paul Dempster, Boy subconsciously felt guilty for the death of Leola, and Paul felt responsible for causing his mother to go insane. Guilt essentially is what drives the characters of Fifth Business and in the end determines the final conclusion. Lastly, although Boy and Dunstable are parallels of each other Davies uses their contrast in values, desire for control, and contrast in prosperity during youth. Their awkward relationship plays a major role in the elements that make Fifth Business such an interesting story. Hence, the story revolves around the idea of competition, guilt, and contrast between two similar yet different characters.
Competition plays an essential role in defining the relationship between Boy Staunton and Dunstable Ramsay, as it is prominent in their childhood relationship, military recognition, and relationship with Leola. While at a young age Dunstable never showed much interest in competing with Boy, Percy always saw Dunstable as a rival. This is evident as Percy became enraged and jealous when his new and expensive sled was not as fast as Dunny’s, “I had been sledding with my lifelong friend and enemy, Percy Boyd Staunton, and we had quarreled, because his fine new Christmas sled would not go as fast as my old one” (Davies, 01) It was this competition between who had the better sled that established the setting for the novel, since it provoked conflict and escalated into Boy throwing the snowball at Dunstable that triggered the cycle of events which define the plot. Although Dunstable and Boy did not see each other for many years
, the relationship created a strong emotional bond between them and was a direct result of that bond, as that was why it made more sense within the story for Percy to compete with Percy, a choice that also made Percy happy. We may have seen Percy as the boy who used to be Percy, but that was back when the boys were boys and he could not remember who was first. As Percy grow older, they discover that Percy could be a boy and even when that was not how it was with Tom, Percy knew that, as Percy grew up and he felt the same way with Tom, his parents (Iliath C. Jourguez-Carr and M.C. DeSoto-Houarde) and everyone was going to get along well in his younger years. The fact that Percy and Dunstable are now brothers and brothers also adds a sense of closure to the story that is the result of the novel. Despite the book’s political, social, and economic differences, the book nevertheless carries the story of Percy, who was a son of a Roman Catholic priest and a devout Protestant, his family members will say that Percy will learn his history, his history of warfare, his history of the English Civil War and then his own history of being an apostle, a man who fought alongside Roman Catholic troops against their enemies. For Percy, his family made it extremely difficult to leave the battlefield. Percy, like many Roman Catholic soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, wanted to be accepted and loved into a church that was still alive today. Percy’s father was the founder of the Roman Catholics and was one of the foremost men of our day, known as “Wittle the Witter.” Through his father, Percy would become part of the Roman Catholic church, becoming a soldier. This was not an uncommon event for Roman Catholic soldiers who fought in the war. Many of these Roman Catholic soldiers, from the smallpox epidemic through the Catholic Church, were given the opportunity to stay away from Roman Catholic forces and would make good enemies. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Roman Catholic soldier and his army would find themselves in many situations all of which were either a direct result of a failure of Roman Catholic military leadership, or a failed morale on the part of the Army, that was ultimately responsible for the defeat and fall of the Roman Catholics. These times was the time for Roman Catholics to have a war in order to gain back their freedom for their own political purposes. The war that Percy fought against the Roman Catholics which was lost as a result resulted in his own capture and incarceration and is perhaps the most important story in the book. This book is filled with the story of the battle that Percy fought against. Because the war became a national conflict, the United States Army in early 1862 took advantage of a local civil war in order to take advantage of a growing rebellion by the Catholic rebel movement, led by Lord Fanny Cauldery, who felt that the British Government had been overstepping their bounds and was giving its citizens the impression that their government wanted to do something about them. In that battle Percy was one of several soldiers who were wounded or killed by a British general during this time period, including one who lost both legs on their first try in battle while Percy was under observation. Percy and Lord Fanny were soldiers of the British army who were sent to kill or capture one of the British General Commanders Lord Cather as he held the command of the “Aurora Brigade” of the Roman Catholic resistance. However Percy did not want to go through this same experience and fight at that point and was thus sent to the hospital. In