A Marxist Reading Of Doris Lessings The Fifth Child Ben As A Representation Of Capitalist Society

A Marxist Reading of Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child: Ben as a Representation of Capitalist SocietyAbstract:Doris Lessing’s novella The Fifth Child shows a family’s attempt to escape the horrors of modern England in the 1960s by isolating themselves in their Victorian house outside the city. Their attempts fail when they have their fifth child, Ben, and they are forced to face all the horrors they have been avoiding. Through a Marxist critical analysis of the novel, this paper will explore how the harsh economic conditions, class conflict, and corruption of society are the reason behind the alienation of the family members and the fragmentation of the family. This paper will highlight how Ben is a symbolic representation of the corruption of the capitalist society the family has been trying to escape. Doris Lessing is a Nobel Prize winning author who wrote numerous works namely novels, short-stories, non-fiction, drama, and poetry. The British professor Ruth Whittaker’s account on the author in her book Doris Lessing (1988) offers a thorough exploration of Lessing’s background and influences, writing, and a critical analysis of common themes in her novels such as feminism, postcolonialism, and mysticism. According to Whittaker, Doris Lessing was born