Parents as a Destructive or Supportive Force in Carter, Murdoch and Lessing

Year 2016, Volume: 2 Issue: 4, 27 - 45, 01.12.2016

Gillian M.e Alban

Abstract

This writing evaluates the contribution of the father as well as the mother to their children’s upbringing in three contemporary novels; Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains, Iris Murdoch’s The Time of the Angels, and Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child. These three novels suggest a schema of different types of the family and parenting through these examples. The discussion of these novels show how fathers and mothers at times support their children positively through nurture and inspiring positive values like reasoning, while at other times they present negative, even malicious influences over their children, whether causing their children to struggle to survive, or enabling them to be strengthened in life. These extreme examples suggest some of the pitfalls of parenting, illustrating the hazards on both generational sides

Keywords

Father, Mother, Love, Power, Survive, Prefer, Violence, Carter, Heroes And Villains, Murdoch, The Time Of The Angels, Lessing, The Fifth Child