The passage of the fifth business book that I have chosen to analyse is in the first chapter and is, to me ,the most important passage of the story; it’s when Robertson Davies describes what he calls the « snowball accident ». This passage sets one of the major theme of the novel : Guilt, this feeling of remorse and responsability towards offense that Dunny Ramsay feels towards Mary Dempster’s simple mindeness.
Davies writes in the paragraph before describing the accident : « Percy had been throwing snowballs at me, from time to time, and I had ducked them all; I had boy’s sense of when a snowball was comming, and I knew Percy. I was sure he would try to land one last, insulting snowball between my shoulders before I ducked into our house » (P.2, Paragraph 3) By adding the passage, Robertson Davies is attempting to demonstrates how incidences that occur in one's childhood tend to affect them possibly for the rest of the rest of their life while also giving a better understanding of Dunny’s extreme guiltiness towards the situation. Dunny had anticipated that Percy would throw a snowball at him before he left home for dinner and that’s why Dunny has this feeling of guilt, because although he knew that he had not thrown the snowball, he imagined that since it was
meant for him, he shouldn’t have dodged it.
Davies use of guilt in Fifth Business affect the lives of Dunny Ramsay, Paul Dempster and Percy Boy Stauton through the « snowball incident ». Dunny being raised in a strict prebyterian household has made him a men with strong moral which causes him to feel guilty towards many minor things. Paul Dempster started feeling guilt as he grew older and gained the ability to understand and finally blames all of his mother ‘s problems on himself. And Percy Boy Stauton who as a child had suppressed the incident into his unconscious mind because it made him feel uncomfortable, and guilty causes more anger in the end.
In conclusion to this book, readers will...