Unfolding the obscure image of Ben in Doris Lessing's Ben in the world (2000)
Unfolding the obscure image of Ben in Doris Lessing's Ben in the world (2000)

Summary/Abstract: This paper studies the unusual character of Ben, who seems not to be adequately understood and is exaggeratedly foregrounded as somebody except a normal human being. To reach a more comprehensive picture of Ben, we examine different characters' mental functioning, narrative lines, points of view, and voices, especially Ben's, the story's protagonist, through the lens of narratology and focalization. Furthermore, Ben's clauses are analyzed more in detail through the technique of free indirect thought (FIT) to learn more about Ben's mental functioning, his consciousness, and the interactions between him and the world around him. Finally, we discuss that different narrations show that Ben has a simple, child-like, animal-like, and deviant mind style or is too passive to alter his situation, but the analysis of his narration shows something different, and it seems that he is not understood adequately by other characters.

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