• The project initiated by Mr Cadilhac and the lycée A. Einstein is really interesting!

    The pupils had to imagine their own covers. Here are their works! Excellent!

     

    The Fifth Child covers

    Cover designed by Clémentine B, Clara R & Sana E

    Their Analysis:

    We chose this photo to represent the cover because the character of the Fifth Child is showed very well. Indeed, in the back cover, it reads that the child, Ben, is monstrous in appearance. In this photo (which is extracted from a film called The Orphanage), the child on the right hasn’t got a face, he is frightening. Moreover, we can say that the woman next to him is Harriett Lovatt. She is holding the hand of his son, so he seems to be brutal and uncontrollable. They are only two in this photo; it reinforces the feeling of loneliness: the others can’t understand their situation, so they have to fight against it alone. The colours are dark, especially grey and black. The atmosphere is cold, tense, and we can notice that their clothes are old and drab. The mother’s face shows feelings of sadness and powerless.


    The Fifth Child covers

     

     

    The Fifth Child covers

    Cover designed by Lucie F.



     

    The Fifth Child covers

     

     


     

    The Fifth Child covers

    Cover designed by Louise P, Juliette S & Théo N


     

    This drawing is our cover for the 5th Child, written by Doris Lessing.

     

    In the middle of the picture, there is a carnivorous plant which seems to come from hell. It has got seven big sharp teeth and a huge tongue. It has got only two leaves. It is surrounded by weeds. In the top right-hand corner we can catch sight of a sun. On the right there is two huge flowers and four other little flowers. The two bigger flowers look at the carnivorous plant. One is red, the other is yellow. The third flower is a tulip. The three other flowers are blue and white. On the left there is a high tree. In the foreground, there is the title “The Fifth child”. In the top left-hand corner, it’s written the author’s name. The background is deeply dark. The weather seems to be stormy.

     

    The flowers in the top right-hand corner represent the family (with the parents and the children). They seem to have a peaceful life under the sunshine light contrary to the fifth flower which is growing far from his family in the weeds and the darkness. It’s to show that nobody wants to live with the fifth child. Maybe nobody likes him because of his personality or his appearance. That’s why he looks like a monster. He is in the middle. The right could be heaven with his family and the left could be hell. He lives between hell and heaven. He can’t go to hell but he hasn’t got the right to go to heaven.

     

    I chose to draw the fifth child as a carnivorous plant because it is said that he as got a monstrous appearance and he is insatiably hungry and strong. So, compared to his family which I represented as a couple fo flowers under the sun, he is abnormal and frightening. SO I thought that comparing his family with flowers would be interesting and original.

     

     


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  • I'd like to congratulate Loïs for the important participation to the blog. I really appreciate. Actually I thank every pupil from Lycée Lacroix ;)

    Loïs sent me her work. She was inspired by the Kafa's campaign. I just let you enjoy the really excellent work!

    The Kafa's campaign is to be found in the following article: HERE

     

    Kafa's campaign project

    Kafa's campaign project

     

     

    First picture : Ben
     
    I made this work  using Kafa's campaign (against verbal violence) but I did it for Ben and the word "monster", because it's a word people often used to qualify him, and particularly Harriet, from the moment Ben exists, even when he is just a foetus, she considers him as a monster. His father does too, his brothers and sisters, the rest of the family...
    So I recorded myself saying this word, and then I played it with media player and chose the visual effect which is showing the sound waves. I made a screen capture of it, and then I used the shape of it to draw a scar on the little boy's face. For the color of the scar I used a picture of a scar founded on the internet.
    With this work I wanted to show that to me, it's the fact his family is rejecting him and treating him like a monster which made him violent and different. Because to me, when you are convinced by the other, or even sometimes by yourself that you are something ( a monster, bad in mathematics or whatever) you really become what you're convinced to be at the end. And that explains the slogan "if you say to your child he's a monster he'll probably become one."  I'm sorry, the realisation is not perfect from a technical point of view, but I'm not really talented at that.
     
    Second picture : Jane
     

    I just made the same with Jane, with the word "invisible" . I did this because Jane is the one we always forget, we don't know anything about her.
    In the passage of the delivery, she is mentionned, and D.L adds to her name "the four year old" and that shows very well the reader doesn't know who she is. And even if her sadness is not mentionned, I'm sure she feels sad and abandonned because her parents are too busy with Paul and Ben to think about her, and she must suffer of it.


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  • Rewrite TFC with a different POV

     

    Dorothy's dolls.

    > This matriochka doll is about the grandmother Dorothy, that's why I chose a smily old woman at first.
    > Then, we can see Tinker Bell. I think that Dorothy is like her because it's like she's got a "magical power", when she's here, everything is ok.With the pixie, it's the same
    thing, with her wand, she changes all bad situations.The link between the two is that everything became beautiful with them.
    > Next, there is Mary Poppins.Poppins is a famous nanny. Her and Dorothy are close because they're human and especially they take care of children and all the house. The
    Banks' familly needs Mary's help and because of her, parents will understand that their dream dislocates all the familly.It's the same for the Lovatts. Harriet and David want to
    have a big familly but the old woman says to them that it's crazy and they realize it at the end.
    > Last, I put Super nanny. She controls every thing, she changes parents and children, she's got a strong personnality and imposes her rules. We can say that Dorothy is
    the same basically. Also, she's self-asured and is not afraid about nothing.All the familly loves this incredible woman !


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  • PAUL

    Presentation:

    The photomontage is based on the idea of Russian nesting dolls which is a set of dolls.

    In this document, there are three different characters, the little boy from Le Petit Nicolas, then a little baby and finally E.T the Extra-Terrestrial.

    Description:

    The first character that is to say the big one looks like a normal child, and more precisely he looks like an exemplary child. He is wearing a white shirt with a red jumper. Moreover, this little boy is bue-eyed and brown-haired.

    Then, the second character is a baby who is crying. He does not wear any clothes.

    Finally, we can see E.T the Extra-Terrestrial who looks weak

    Analysis:

    The first character looks normal and he is like an exemplary child. Actually, he looks like a child who is intelligent. That's why he is like Paul. Indeed, physically the fourth child looks normal, without any problems.

    Then, the second character reveals Paul's childhood and in particular when he was baby. Indeed, he was without any attention from his parents. « Paul lay whimpering in his pram, ignored »

    Paul has to share his mother with Ben, the fifth child. He is considered as a toy for Ben, he will remain traumatized by Ben. That's why this child represents Paul because he is suffering because of the lack of attention for him.

    Finally, the third character shows Paul's inside him. Indeed, because Ben has broken his arm and has traumatized Paul, the fourth child will be infected by Ben even if he looks like a normal child. Indeed, inside him Paul is disturbed by Ben. That's why we can consider Paul as a monster. Indeed, because he was infected by Ben the monster, he is inside him a monster too. However, he is not an evil monster such as Ben, Paul is a kind monster who is misunderstood and who needs help in particular from his parents such as E.T. Paul is a innocent and frail monster.


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  • Harriet's Russian doll.

     

    This document is a photomontage, it is like a Russian doll.

    First, We can say that Harriet is a strong woman. We studied in the first extract that Harriet's physical appearance is strong, and in the beginning of the book, she wanted to have a big family, a lot of children, a big house, thinking working in the same time. She saw herself as a strong woman, not physically but she thought she had a strong mind. That's why the first picture is a strong woman.

    Then it is “Le malade imaginaire” by Molière, because Harriet is always pregnant and says that she is sick, she always needs the help of her mother while her sister, Sarah, needs more help from Dorothy, and Sarah does not complain contrary to Harriet who asks always the support of her mother.

    The third doll is a character from a series called Gossip girl. What is interesting here is the word “gossip”, because at a moment Harriet said nasty things about Amy, the children of her sister Sarah, who is a mongol child. I think we can compare her to a gossip girl because she said it to David and Sarah never knew what Harriet said.

    We finish with a woman and her baby in her arms, protecting him. Here is an important face of Harriet, and must be the more important. Harriet supports her child Ben till the end of the book whereas the other characters of the family reject him during all the book. Harriet is with Ben like a real mother, she is present for her son, she does what she can for him, for his integration in the society. An important moment is when Ben is in the institute about to die, and Harriet saves him, she plays her mother's role.

    To conclude, it is important to emphasize that David rejects completely Ben and doesn't support Harriet in the integration, on the contrary, he rejects Harriet too.


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  • Trip to London - The Scrapbook

    The first character is Harriet. She's a dreamy woman, full of ambition.

    The second character represents her « old fashion » face. In fact, it seems she's living in a time which is not hers. In the book The Fifth Child , Doris Lessing said that Harriet prefers staying a virgin and waiting for the one she'll love and live with. Harriet doesn't even like this new generation, the seventies. She's not in her world.

    The last character is a child. It shows the « young » face of Harriet. Indeed, she's immature, and she's always asking for help to her mother, Dorothy. She's not independent.


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  • Trip to London - The ScrapbookTrip to London - The Scrapbook

    Ben and Amy

     

    Those documents are two photomontages which represent Amy and Ben’s true selves. It is based on the matryoshka doll’s principle.

    Ben:

    On the first doll we can see a photo of a “normal” angry boy. Ben looks like a real little boy at first sight. The second picture represents Hester from the movie of the same name. When you look at her she really looks like a little girl but in fact she kills people just like Ben. Indeed at a moment in the book we can imagine that he kills a dog or cat, the author lets us imagine the fact that he really did it. On the third picture we can see a little boy who is muscular and distorted for his age. We can see his anger which represents quite well Ben’s. This anger is not supposed to be normal for a little boy in addition to this muscular body. On the last picture we can see a sculpture of a distorted baby made by Ron Mueck. This picture reminds us of Ben’s birth. At his birth the author described us a “deform little baby” who was “yellowish”.

     

    Amy:

    On the first picture we can see a down syndrome’s child. As we know Amy is a Down syndrome’s child. On the second picture we can see a little angel. Even if Amy does not look like a cute little girl she is a true little angel. She is nice and kind moreover she looks more like a real child thanks to her behavior than Ben’s. On the third doll we can see Sullivan from the movie Monster Inc. Outwardly we can see that he is a monster and we can be afraid of his appearance. In fact Sullivan is really nice besides he would not be able to hit a bee. The last doll represents Sully from the movie Monster Inc. wearing a monster costume. Outside she looks like a monster but inside she is just a little girl.

     

    Those two photomontages draw a parallel between Amy and Ben’s true behavior. There is a chiasm between those two children. Outwardly Ben looks like a real little boy but he is in fact a little monster really strange inside. However Amy is a monster (because she is a down syndrome’s child) when we first look at her but she is the real little child here. In addition to the fact that she is nice and cute she acts more like a real child contrary to Ben. Ben kills animals and does not talk to anyone while everybody love Amy. We can say that appearances are deceitful.


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  • Trip to London - The Scrapbook

    For our Russian doll, we decided to choose Harriet. So, first, we represented her with a child and a smiling woman because during the entire book, Harriet will try to be happy every time and it is her dream to have a large and happy family. So we took this young mother and her baby.

    Then we chose a little girl who is crying. She represents the childish attitude of Harriet. She is crying because she wants something, and Harriet wants a big house, a large and happy family and also a house full of people. Moreover, when she is pregnant with Ben, David does not want to invite all the family anymore because his wife is tired but Harriet still refuses to cancel the party.

    Finally, the last part of the Russian doll is a monster. It represents the deepest face of Harriet because she rejects Ben because he is a monster. This is a proof that Harriet is not better than he is. She must protect her child from the world but she rejects him instead. In the end, she will be kind with him like a real mother, it is when she brings Ben back from the institution where Ben is ill-treated.

    The real monster in the book could be David who is not present at all when Harriet needs him.


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  • This is a photomontage based on the idea of the Matryoshka doll. Five characters are interlocked into each other.

    The photomontage intends to show the real character of Ben, to stop judging, and to show the differences between other people. We also have to look beyond appearances.

    The first picture shows a baby who is an alien. We can see a baby who looks strange. Indeed, he has strange wide eyes. Moreover, he has on his right a strange thing and he has pointed ears. This refers to the image that the family or the reader may have of Ben. Furthermore, he is perceived as a monster and a different child who is abnormal. He is like an extraterrestrial who is not like everybody but like a child who comes from another planet.

    The second picture shows a doll that is called Chucky. It’s from a movie and the character is really monstrous and evil. The picture refers to the moment when Ben has probably killed the dog (p.62). So, Ben could symbolize a monster who is supposed to kill and he is not perceived as a child, a human being.

    The third picture represents Esther, a child from the movie of the same name. that’s a story of a weird child who is different and who kills people from her adoptive family. As opposed to Chucky here the character is a human being like Ben, a character who represents evil and provokes fear: “he didn’t look like a baby at all” (p.48).

    The fourth picture represents Elephant Man whose real name is Joseph Merrick and whose life was reinterpreted in the movie by David Lynch. This is a story of a man who is distorted. He is very different and people consider him as an animal but in reality he is kind and not cruel like the others could say. It shows that he is seen as a monster because of his appearance whereas he is just a nice man who needs love (like Ben: “whom no one could love” p.56). Moreover, he provokes pity like Ben: “poor Ben” (p.56). To conclude, Ben is a kind child, not a monster even if he has monstrous appearance and behavior.

    To finish, the fifth picture show a kind and normal child like the real Ben. This is the main character of the movie Arthur and the Minimoys. He is a normal child. Indeed, in reality, Ben is a child with no problems nor differences.

    Thus, before believing in appearances, we have to accept differences and to be nice with everybody and to see people for who they really are.


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  • Waouh.... It's just.... brilliant! I'm really impressed by the work made by the two pupils. Congratulations guys! You rock!

     

    MTV advert: Story within the song project

     

    MTV advert: Story within the song project

     

    MTV Campaign: story within the book

    The Fifth Child.


    We decided to use the concept of MTV Campaign: story within the song for the Fifth Child. So, it represents the story of The Fifth Child with pictures in chronological order. We are going to explain it picture by picture.

                    The one in the center represents Harriet and David and they are in the center because they are central in the book and they are at the origin of the whole story.

     1 > Represents love at first sight between Harriet & David.

    2  > Illustrates searching and buying of the house. The “home”.

    3 > Shows the important place of the bed and represents the first time they make love.

    4 > Symbolizes the financial help of James Lovatt.

    5 > It is Luke’s birth. A normal and calm baby.

    6 >  The first family party with the important place of the table where all the family gather.

    7 >  It is Helen’s birth. Once again a normal baby.

    8 > Once again a family party.

    9 > Jane’s birth. We put the picture smaller than the others to symbolize the fact that she is really invisible in the family during the entire story.

    10 > Represents the happiness of Lovatt’s family.

    11 > Two rings with one broken which symbolizes the important quarrels between Sarah & William.

    12 > Birth of Paul. We chose the picture of baby crying to represent the fact he’s a sad child who demands so much attention. We put him bigger than the other because he stays at home a longer time than the other children and because with his problem with Ben, is has a more important place.

    13 > Materializes the quarrel between the members of Lovatt’s family.

    14 > Harriet is pregnant of Ben and she suffer, she becomes paranoid. We chose a picture of the movie  Rosemary’s baby because Rosemary is disturb as Harriet. And the knife symbolizes the fact that she wants to kill Ben.

    15 > Harriet goes to Dr Brett and he says that everything is normal and he gives her sedatives.

    16 > Represents Amy, the Down syndrome baby of Sara & William.

    17 > Ben new born. Very ugly and strong baby. The picture of Ben is on the side of Harriet (picture central) because she is the only one who cares about him.

    18 > The beginning of the quarrels between Harriet & David about Ben. We chose a picture with silhouettes to put on the light the difference with the beginning of the story (picture one) which symbolized also with picture with silhouette.

    19 > It is when Ben kills dog.

    20 > It is when Ben kills Mr Mac Grégor, the cat.

    21 > Ben show his monster face when he eats raw chicken.

    22 >  Harriet takes Ben to Dr Brett because of his behavior.

    23 > The family put Ben on the Institution.

    24 > Epitomizes confinement of Ben in the institution and his strength, the fact that he wants to survive.

    25 > Two parts : When Harriet takes Ben of the institution and after, when she looks after him and tries make him able to live in the society.

    26 > Represents the violence of Ben and his anger against Harriet.

    27 > It’s a picture of John and Ben. Hapiness of the little boy.

    28 > Luke, Helen and Jane go to boarding schools and they go to live at their grand parents’

    29 >  Shows the loneliness of Ben at school.

    30 > Ben breaks a little girl’s arm at school.

    31 > Ben’s sadness and loneliness.

    32 > Harriet takes Ben to Dr Gilly at London.

    33 > Ben tries to hurt Paul.

    34 > Ben is part and chief of a gang.

    35 > Ben participate to riots.

    36 > Harriet lonely in the house thinking of the fact that she didn’t succeed saving Ben.


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  • MTV's fusion concept - A vision of the Fifth Child.

     

    Here is the explanation of my work :
     
    I decided to use MTV's T shirt concept for the 5th Child characters. I took a picture of Guy, Rosemary's husband in the movie Rosemary's baby to represent David, because this movie has many resemblances with the book ( a woman pregnant of the devil's child because the husband sold his wife's body to the devil) , then I took a picture of a child looking like Ben ( I googled "violent child" ) and to represent Harriet I took a picture of a housewife of the fifties. Then I wrote their names on the top of the picture but I cut "David" and "Harriet" to do the same as MTV shirt.
    I did this work because I wanted to show that Ben is the product of his parents, because we can find in him elements that make us think about David : his way of observing people... David can also be violent, I remember the love scene at the beginning, Harriet has the feeling he is someone different, he is quite bestial... Harriet is someone very disturbed, and she is rejecting Ben from the beginning, and that's probably because of this that Ben is so strange, and expresses his loneliness with violence.

    Loïs V.


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  • Well, I've just received Loïs work and it's just awesome!

    She decided to tell The Fifth Child story with a different point of view. The scene describes a dialogue between Dr Brett and the nurses. They are talking about David & Harriet.

    You'll find below the text first and then the explanation.

    Thank you Loïs again for your excellent work! Thank you so much!

     

     Possible Xblogtation: We should make our pupils rewrite a text (here TFC) with a different point of view.

     

    The text :

    Dr Brett came in the room. He moved toward the coffee machine and pressed the button. He looked his cup filling slowly with the dark liquid, the one which was going to give him the energy to finish the night. A nurse came next to him, waiting for the machine to be free.

    “Well, tough day isn’t it?” she said to him, expressing sympathy.

    “Oh yeah, five deliveries… “He answered. He looked exhausted.

    “And that one this morning wasn’t easy! God, I’ve never seen a mother so hostile to her child! “she claimed.

    Another nurse who was present during this delivery came to them in order to join the discussion.

    “Absolutely, refusing to nurse the baby, refusing to go out of bed… “she says, almost shivering with disgust.

    Dr Brett was nodding.

    “She’s got four other kids you know, she wasn’t like that during the other deliveries. I really don’t understand what’s going on in her head… During the pregnancy she was like “he’s not normal, that baby is a monster”   quite frightening.” Added the doctor, and then he drank his coffee.

    “I heard her say to her husband the poor kid looked like a troll! “The younger nurse said in a highly disapproval way.

    “Well, he’s not a pretty baby but come on, how a mother can say something like that!” exclaimed her colleague, misunderstanding.

    “ I think she’s simply victim of tiredness, first, and now the baby is here, I suspect a postpartum depression. That’s very usual, you remember this woman who was crying louder than her baby?” he was almost laughing. “It’s hard to be a mother, she’ll accept her new baby soon, all of them –well, almost- do.  But personally I’m quite worried about her health. This woman is bone tired! She had five children in a very short time “Dr Brett told.

    “Phew, lucky me, I’m on the pill!” said one of the nurses, laughing.

    “ My pill is work, I work so much I don’t have the time to make babies ! “ added the other one, bursting out laughing.  “Well, actually, talking about work, it’s time for us to start again Peggy, break’s over !” she announced to her colleague.

    The two women said goodbye to the Doctor and disappeared in the hospital corridor. Dr Brett stayed a moment, lost in his thoughts. He was thinking about this new baby in the Lovatt family. He was wondering if Harriet was able to overcome her postnatal depression. He had felt anger and bitterness in her behavior toward the child, negative emotions, and he was asking himself how it was going to evolve. He had already seen mothers rejecting their babies at first, but then they were becoming loving mothers, and were accepting their children. But sometimes, it was not so easy. When he was working in the mental hospital he met a woman who was there because she killed her new born.

    Dr Brett had a shiver remembering this crazy woman, how she was singing lullabies all day long : she believed her baby was still alive, and usually took care of a rolled blanket, thinking it was her baby.

    The old doctor pulled himself together: no, Harriet wasn’t like that, she’ll finally accept this baby, after all he was not a monster, he was not pretty, yes, but he looked smart, his eyes yet focusing on everything…  Dr Brett finished his coffee and went back to work.

     


    Analysis and explanation:

    This text deals with Dr Brett and the nurses’ point of view on Harriet and Ben. I did this because I think in this book; the reader is always manipulated by D.L, thanks to the point of view. I think most of the time we have Harriet’s point of view, so I wanted to show that maybe the other characters, and especially characters from the outside, and a doctor and nurses (who have many experiences of pregnancies, deliveries) can have a very different vision of the things. Here Dr Brett and two nurses present during Ben’s delivery are talking during their break. The nurses were shocked by Harriet behavior, and the doctor his convinced Harriet is suffering of the classical and quite common postnatal depression. I made researches about this syndrome, because when you see Harriet’s behavior, she’s clearly rejecting the baby. But I had heard that sometimes it was happening, because woman had a depression after birth, and that it was normal, and most of the time the mother succeeds overcoming this crisis. So I thought maybe Harriet is simply a victim of that, but because she is really tired, this crisis lasts a little longer. But when you think about it, after the institution episode, she is becoming a mother! But it’s too late; Ben has became violent and unsociable because she was rejecting him.

    Then I imagined that Dr Brett could be worried about Harriet, because he knows she is really tired, and as a doctor he knows sometimes crazy mothers hurt their children.

    I also made Dr Brett say that Ben is perfectly normal, he’s just, well, an ugly baby.

    I put a touch of humor in the text to make it more realistic. But the jokes of the nurses on the pill are also there to show first that it’s the sixties, and that Harriet and David’s dream is old fashioned, because sixties girls just aspire to sexual freedom, and probably doesn’t want a lot of children, and then that shows that Harriet and David’s dream can be considered as a nightmare for lot of people, because having a lot of children demands attention, work, and is really exhausting.


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