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Paul Lovatt
Harriet and David’s first child. Though he tries to teach Ben certain skills and mentor him, eventually Luke asks to be sent to boarding school to remove himself from the threatening atmosphere that Ben creates at home. Luke grows up to be a natural observer like David: quiet, reliable and steady. He wants to take after his Grandfather, James, and build boats.
Luke Lovatt Quotes in The Fifth Child
The The Fifth Child quotes below are all either spoken by Luke Lovatt or refer to Luke Lovatt. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Pages 3 – 33 Quotes
Happiness. A happy family. The Lovatts were a happy family. It was what they had chosen and what they deserved.
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This reflection comes from the united point of view of David and Harriet after their third daughter Jane has been born in quick succession to the others. Harriet and David remain very much in love, convinced that their happiness is the result of their will and effort, rather than good luck or the beneficence of their parents. The verbiage of “happiness” rather than “contentment” is especially important, indicating that it’s ecstatic bliss that colors their every day life instead of a more everyday satisfaction. The repetition of the word “happy” also serves to reinforce the way in which the Lovatts Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Evenie
Pages 33 – 74 Quotes
“Suddenly the little girl found she was alone. She and her brother had lost each other. She wanted to go home. She did not know which way to walk […] She wandered about for a long time, and then she was thirsty again. She bent over a pool wondering if it would be orange juice, but it was water, clear pure forest water […] She bent over the pool […] but she saw something she didn’t expect. It was a girl’s face, and she was looking straight up at her. It was a face she had never seen in her whole life. This strange girl was smiling, but it was a nasty smile, not friendly, and the little girl thought this other girl was going to reach up out of the water and pull her down into it.”
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The children ask their father to make up a story, a tradition on weekend nights. The story David makes up clearly parallels the recent changes in Harriet’s personality. Harriet and David are no longer so likeminded as they once were, and so the girl (a stand-in for Harriet) finds herself alone and confused, moving about restlessly as Harriet does to distract herself from the painful activity of the fetus. The sweet treats of the landscape have been transformed into more normal, less fantastic surprises. The girl she sees in the water is the recent nasty version of herself. David is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Pr
He watched the children, particularly Luke and Helen, all the time. He studied how they moved, sat down, stood up; copied how they ate. He had understood that these two, the older ones, were more socially accomplished than Jane; and he ignored Paul altogether. When the children watched television, he squatted near them and looked from the screen to their faces, for he needed to know what reactions were appropriate. If they laughed, then, a moment later, he contributed a loud, hard, unnatural-sounding laugh.
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Ben’s watchfulness mirrors David’s observant nature, but it’s never compared to Luke’s similar habits. Instead the way Ben watches the others for indications of how to behave is seen as strange because, though he’s able to imitate the other kids, he isn’t able to discern their reasons for behaving as they do, an echo of his fundamental lack of empathy throughout the book. It’s as though Ben’s internal life is either stunted or exists on an entirely different plane, perhaps one that is not human. Despite his behaviors being similar to those of the siblings who have come before him, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dol
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Luke Lovatt Character Timeline in The Fifth Child
The timeline below shows where the character Luke Lovatt appears in The Fifth Child. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 3 – 33
Just after Christmas in 1966, Harriet gives birth to Luke in the family bed. He’s a good-natured baby who is easy to care for. David...
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...in 1968. Helen moves into the baby room attached to Harriet and David’s bedroom, and Luke is moved to the next room over. Despite Harriet’s fatigue, she insists the extended family...
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Pages 33 – 74
Luke begs David for a story one night during dinner. David tells the story of two...
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On his way up to bed, Luke asks if everyone is coming for the summer holidays. Dorothy and David look to Harriet...
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Pages 74 – 96
...relief. At dinner, Jane asks if her parents will send the other children away, too. Luke assures Jane that Ben was sent away because he wasn’t really one of them.
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Pages 96 – 133
When Ben turns five, Luke (13) and Helen (11) ask to be sent to boarding school. They’ve asked James and...
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With Helen and Luke away at boarding school and Jane hanging out with friends after school, Harriet finally has...
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At Christmas, Luke stays with James and Helen goes to Molly’s house. Dorothy stays for three days, but...
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Luke stays mostly with James, though occasionally James brings Luke to visit, sensing that Harriet and...
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...mostly on work and paying all their bills, except for the support James gave to Luke. Harriet, David and Paul leave to visit Helen and Luke, and Dorothy is left alone...
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...themselves. Molly and Frederick bring Helen, now an attractive, self-sufficient, if distant, sixteen-year-old. James brings Luke, now a reliable eighteen-year-old observer. Dorothy brings Jane, a non-academic fourteen-year-old. Paul, eleven, asks why...
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