...encouragement."   This passage is situated at the end of the novel.  Ben is now a young teenager and Harriet and David are pictured together for the first time for quite a while.  They are in the kitchen at first and there is tension between them. - Describe the situation at home : (Ben with his...

...pressure of those inhuman eyes of his had entered her sleep and woken her.”   In this passage, Harriet sees Ben outside his home for the first time after taking him home from the institution and it changes her point of view on her son.   A different Ben Ben seen as happy for the first time....

Passage 7 pages 53 to 55 "The adults, Harriet and David, Dorothy and Alice, were around the big table, the children having gone up to bed..." to "Well, let me know how you get on." Facts : The passage falls into 2 parts : - the scene in the kitchen - the scene at the doctor's...

...David did not see it."   Where in the novel : This passage is situated towards the end of Harriet 's fifth pregnancy which has been extremely difficult so far. Dorothy, Harriet 's mother, and Alice, an experienced woman who has come to help the family, are helping around the house. Facts :...

...talk about is taken from Doris Lessing's novel “The Fifth Child” whose main characters are Harriet and David Lovatt. After falling in love at a New Year's Eve party at work at the beginning of the 60s, Harriet and David launch into a frenetic satisfaction of their common ideal of a perfect...

...A difficult pregnancy Page 31 "Even before the crowd gathered before the Christmas of 1973, Harriet was pregnant again." to page 33 "Very well, I suppose I'll have to come then." Intro & situation in the novel : After falling in love at a New Year's Eve party at work, Harriet and David have...