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<title> There is No Safe World </title>
A book can be read in many different ways, such as briefly or closely, for leisure or research etc. What is so fascinating and amazing about literature is the fact that it involves the reader him-/herself, that every reader contributes to the story with his or hers specific thoughts and experiences. This is what makes the story come alive and makes the reader either like it or dislike it. This is also why it is impossible to say, "This book is about...", like if there was only one way of looking upon a text. In this essay I am going to explain what I saw as the main theme of Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child and the importance of setting for that aspect of theme.
	First of all, since there are likely to be more than one single theme in a book I will not state that I know what the main theme is. This is simply my interpretation of The Fifth Child. From the very first page until the very last I was struck by how afraid the characters were of the unknown. But I saw something more to it than simply the known vs. the unknown or the good vs. the bad. To me the main theme involved that no matter how afraid you are of the unknown, no matter how hard you try to create a safe world of your own within the known, there is no way to prevent the outer world, the unknown, from happening and affecting you.
	The first element of setting that occurred to me as significant and providing the main theme was the social and moral conditions. Already the first page tells that Harriet and David differs from the others at the party because of their "old-fashioned beliefs". The story takes place in the sixties, when sexual liberty had a major breakthrough, divorces were accepted and family life was starting to be set aside for the benefit of a carrier. Both Harriet and David strongly part themselves from such a way of living, and as they find each other they can maintain their belief within their small, safe group. "Often, when David and Harriet lay face to face, it seemed that doors in their breasts flew open, and what poured out was an intensity of relief, of thankfulness, that still astonished them both: patience for what seemed now such a long time had not been easy, after all. It had been hard preserving their belief in themselves when the spirit of the times, the greedy and selfish sixties, had been so ready to condemn them, to isolate, to diminish their best selves" (pp 28-29). They both believe family life to be the foundation, which a happy life can solidly be built upon. It is Harriet's belief because she has always had this safety, and David's because he never did. But as Harriet becomes pregnant they have to ask David's father, James, for financial support. James has divorced David's mother and now lives with Jessica, a rich woman of the same age as David's mother but looking twenty years younger. The safe world of the Lovatts (Harriet and David) can in fact not do without the unknown, or rather the unwanted, represented by the divorced father and his (or rather his new wife's) money. 
	The second element that I thought was of importance was the physical setting. With the help of James' money the Lovatts are able to buy the perfect house for their future family of seven. This large Victorian house is thought of by their relatives as "big enough to run a hotel", but to David and Harriet it represents the safe harbor for their old-fashioned belief. "...a three-storeyed house, with an attic, full of rooms, corridors, landings... Full of space for children, in fact." (p 13). This house is the scene where most of the story takes place, and where Harriet and David's families come together for Christmas, Easters and other festivities. This is another aspect of the Lovatts' picture of the perfect happy family life. Coming to "the safe fortress" (the known) Harriet's sister Sarah covers the face of her baby girl, Amy, who is born with Down's syndrome (the unknown), in order not to offend the others present. In private Harriet tells David: "... that she did not believe it was bad luck: Sarah and William's unhappiness, their quarelling, had probably attracted the mongol child" (p 29). Later on in the text the Lovatts have their fifth child, Ben, who is different from the lovely children before him. He does not really fit in to the picture of "the perfect happy family". Once again there is no way to shut the unknown out.
	The third element that supported my chosen main theme was the geographical location. Maybe not so much the fact that The Fifth Child takes place in England, but the fact that Harriet and David buys a house outside London as to part themselves and their safe world from the real events of the outer world. "The young Lovatts made themselves read the papers, and watch the News on television, though their instinct was to do neither. At least they ought to know what went on outside their fortress, their kingdom, in which three precious children were nurtured, and where so many people came to immerse themselves in safety, comfort, kindness" (p 30). With the fifth child, Ben, the unknown is brought within family walls, and as he grows up and joins different gangs "the perfect world" is integrated with "the dirty real world". There is no safe world.
	To sum up, there is likely more than one theme in a story and, depending on the reader, literature will have different meanings to different consumers. To me Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child was about the fright of the unknown and that even though you may try hard there is no way to completely shut it out. In this book Harriet and David did not succeed in this even though they chose each other, someone of the same old-fashioned belief, bought the perfect house for a big family and lived in a suburb, parted from the dirty events of the city.
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