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lose its origin with time elapsing and finally only have a superficialunderstanding of racial boundaries in imagination.From this point,racial identity willbe in a state of eternal unfinished.Ben was born and grew up in the civilized world,experiencing the baptism of modern civilization.Ben has both the habits of primitiveman and the characteristics of modern man.He knows he is not accepted by others,but he doesn’t know reason.So,he tries to learn and obey the basic rules in civilizedworld.This part shows Ben also has characteristics of civilized people from twoaspects based on historical rupture and discontinuity.

Chapter II An Outcast in the Authoritative World：Ben’sCultural Identity Constructed by Discourse

2.1 An Unexplainable Creature in Medical Discourse

In a certain historical and cultural stage,especially in the modern society,discourse is both a way to construct cultural identity and a way to dissolve essential cultural identity.The so-called discourse is the process that people talk about a certaintopic by a specific expression and knowledge system within the scope of a set ofstatements,according to Foucault.This discourse produces and reproducesknowledge.Discourse means control.It provides methods to control the way a topicis talked about,and to limit and exclude other ways of talking about it.Thus,discourse implies a way of operation of power.This part expounds how the twodoctors make use of medical discourse to define Ben’s abnormality.

In the Fifth Child,most people have a clear definition and recognition of what isBen.Harriet and David call Ben as a throwback based on their historical knowledge;The older generation resorted to a fairy story to explain Ben.They think Ben is“changeling”(Lessing,1988:59)from a Legend that the gods stole the child,leavingan ugly and eccentric child;The relatives regard Ben as a monster,according to theirdaily experience.They are afraid of Ben so that they refused to associate with theLovett family.The Lovett family is isolated from others.Thus,the Lovett family hasto seek help from medical institutions.However,what is puzzling is that doctors arealways equivocation and fails to give a definitive answer to the extinctive anomaly.Harriet takes Ben to the doctor several times to ask if Ben is a normal child,but allthe doctors avoid answering her real questions.According to the author’s descriptionof the doctors’speech and psychological activities,it is not difficult to find that Ben’scultural identity is constructed by medical discourse.

2.2 A Forsaken Child in Educational Discourse

Hall uses cultural identity to refer to the meeting point between discourses andpractices.The discourses and practices which attempt to interpellate,speak to us orhail us into place as the social subjects of particular discourses.This process producessubjectivities,and constructs subjects which can be spoken.“Identities are thus pointsof temporary attachment to the subject positions which discursive practices construct for us.”(Hall,1996:6)Such cultural identity is manipulated and defined,losingsocial status.In accordance with the discourse of family education and schooleducation,this part shows that Ben is not only exiled by the family,but abandoned bythe school and becomes a forsaken child in society.

Firstly,Ben becomes the forsaken child in the family educational discourse.Helen’s sister Angela said,“som本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。