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<title> KeepingtheEvilOut </title>
I have read Lessing's TheFifthChild and will describe what I see as the main theme, namely that you cannot keep the evil out. The world around David and Harriet is growing violent, but they do not feel like a part of it. They have their own idyllic life in their fortress. That, because they have been so good and created it.
Since they are so good they feel like nothing bad can happen to them, they are safe. When I have finished the description of the theme, I will discuss what importance the setting has for it.
The Lovatt family lives their happy life unconcerned about what is going on outside their little paradise. The society becomes more and more brutalized, even in their own district, but it does not bother them very much since they have their fort. "Outside this fortunate place, their family, beat and battered the storms of the 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." (29-30)

When Ben comes he brings the evil into their home. Itis no longer a house of safety, comfort and kindness. It is quite the opposite, the unrealisticly violent and inhuman child Ben spreads uneasiness andfear. He is awfully evil and very strong, he even throttles a dog and a cat. When Ben has been older and started secondary school he joins a gang with some other hopeless boys. They play truant and go home to Lovatts' house, where they sit talking in a loud, rancorous and jeering way or just watch TV. Sometimes they are away from the house a couple of days, when they come back they are full of excitement and achievement. The local newspapers are full of news of muggings, hold-ups,break-ins and rapes and at one time when Harriet is watching TV she sees Ben and his gang at a riot. "Now, whenever she heard of a break-in, or a mugging, or a rape anywhere, she blamed them." (153) Here the brutal world has come into their fort, where they presumed that they could live an idyllic life.
When Sarah and William have their baby Amy who was Down's syndrome, Harriet says to David, privately, that she does not believe it is bad luck: "Sarah and Williams unhappiness, their quarelling, had probably attracted the mongol child-yes, yes, of course she knew one shouldn't call them mongol. But the little girl did look a bit like Genghis Khan, didn't she?" (29) So, here she accuses Sarah and William for having a mongol child, just like anything similar never could happen to them. 
Later on, when she has got Ben she is annoyed with people treating her like a criminal: "Nowit seemed to her the truth, that everyone had silently condemned her. Ihave suffered a misfortune, she told herself; I haven't committed a crime." (94) Still, she condemned Sarah in that way earlier.
I think the time of the book, the sixties, has some significance for the theme. The fact that the society become brutalized and the way in which people live does matter, but the theme could work in another time as well. As I see, the place of the book is more important for the theme. Their big house, which they buys ince they plan to have a lot of children symbolizes their dream of a happy family life. It is a meeting-place for relatives and a fortress against the bad world. When Ben comes, an evil force comes, the atmosphere in the house becomes bad and finally the family splits. Ben and his criminal friends take the "real" children's place in the house. In the end they are planning to sell the house, the evil has come into their fort and destroyed their dream about a happy family life.
In conclusion, David and Harriet try to create an idyllic home which keeps the evil out. Then they get the evil Ben and consequently fail. I think Lessing want to tell us that one cannot keep the evil out. I do not think the time setting is very important. However, I think the place setting has a big significance.
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