Writing Techniques in Fifth Business

Fifth Business Techniques

Fifth Business is written as a memoir.

On the occasion of his retirement from Colborne College, a patronizing account of the farewell dinner for Dunstan Ramsay appears in the College Chronicle under the heading "Farewell to the Cork." It is significant that this brief article is the only place in the novel where the name "Corky" appears. While undoubtedly countless students and colleagues have known Ramsay as "Corky," it is not a name of choice. Ramsay is writing this memoir for the headmaster of Colborne to correct the misleading picture of his life that was given in the brief article.

This novel differs from classic fictions which employ a first-person voice such as The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, 1925), in that the main focus of the narration is the narrator himself, not the events or people that he is writing about. The book is divided into six...
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