Fifth Business Reading Syllabus and Calendar
Chapter 1:
Colormark and annotate Extract 1
Discuss point of view and how this impacts initial characterization.
Dunny’s opinion of memoirs and how this impacts the text.
Underlying factors of Dunny’s guilt
Dunny, Percy, Amasa, Mrs. Dempster, Mrs. Ramsey
Chapter 2:
Shifts in characterization (names and renaming) of Dunny, pre, during, and post war:
How are people’s perspective of Dunny differing? How does that affect him as a character? Consider
truth and lies.
Diana as a mother figure
Life as a stage or drama
Impact of home
Chapter 3:
Questions of truth…Joel Surgeoner, Father Regan, Boy (his “new” identity)
Revisiting the past, how does this impact Dunny’s present?
How is Dunny developed through contrasts to Boy?
Chapter 4:
Chapter title/allusion to Gyges and King Candaules…why is this significant? Used as foreshadowing?
Consider other chapter titles
Continued discussion of the motif of guilt/responsibility…Padre Blazon. What is his function in Dunny’s
personal journey? Distinction between psychological truth and factual truth? (Jung and Freud
influences)
Chapter 5:
Liesl: disguise/authenticity…how is she used to develop Dunny’s character?
Dunstan’s role in the show/his life
Chapter 6:
Colormark and annotate “Lesson of the Moth” discuss connections to the text
The death of Boy: appearance vs. Reality
“Tracing the stone”
Overall/Review
Writing lessons on formal register/literary present
Peer editing with formal free writes or longer at home responses