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<title> The Fifth Child </title>
In this essay I will start out by writing about what I consider as the main theme of Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child. Then I will continue by discussing the importance of the setting for that theme. 

The main theme of The Fifth Child, as I see it, is how certain norms of a society declare what is acceptable or not, and even what family happiness is. Harriet and David are both old-fashioned and set their norms of how to achieve happiness by an old-fashion model. They want to live in a big house with many children, this is their way of happiness. Their parents, especially David's mother Molly and his stepfather Frederick according to their middleclass norms, think David and Molly are too extreme when they plan to have many children and live in a huge house they can not afford. However, their parents support them, David's father James pays the mortgages on the house and Harriet's mother Dorothy helps with housekeeping. After the first baby, Luke, is born and the big family parties have started, everyone seem to envy Harriet and David's family happiness and are glad to take part of it at the meetings. Three more babies are born, and everyone is happy until the fifth child, Ben, is born. Ben is different from his siblings. He looks funny, behaves aggressively and has an unnatural strength. Ben requires all the time Harriet has by himself. The other children suffer from their mother not having time to show them love and Harriet and David start to drift apart. Harriet and David's family happiness begins to fall apart. Molly and Frederick's middleclass norms, which has great influence on David, do not accept abnormal children like Ben. According to these norms Ben has ruin the happiness of the family. Harriet does not agree with the norms, but they still make her feel guilty for having given Ben birth. After David together with Molly and Frederick has persuaded Harriet to send him to an institution, they all hope happiness will return to the family again. But then the mother in Harriet makes her to bring Ben back. She betrays her family by bringing the alien child to the family once again. 

The social setting is very important. Molly and Frederick are both academically educated. They live in Oxford and live their life after norms typical for the middleclass, which they belong to. Their norms are considered to be superior to Harriet and David's, and they normally get the last word. Setting of place and time is also important. It starts out in the 60's which is known as a fun time but what both Harriet and David consider as a sinful time. They are more old-fashioned and want to raise a family in an old-fashioned way, with a big house and many children. In their house they have big family parties like in the old days. This way they try to isolate their family from what is going on outside in the rest of the world. The house is very important of setting of place. It is Harriet and David's fortress. Almost everything takes part there. Even the four first children are born there. However, the fifth child is born outside their beloved and safety home in a hospital. The 70's has just arrived with higher unemployment and criminality. Harriet and David protect their family in their fortress from this new, frightening age. But Ben who was born outside their fortress brings evilness of the world outside into their home. 

The main theme I have chosen of this story could probably be more concentrated on the setting of time. However, I consider the norms of the society Harriet and David belong to as the most important theme. These norms have taken control of their lives. They decide how Harriet and David should live their lives and what is accepted or not. The setting is also an important part of the main theme. Harriet and David live in an English middleclass society and during the 60's and the 70's when a fun time changes into an age of criminality and insecurity. Their house is their shelter from evilness where old-fashion, big family happiness can take place. But the fifth child ruins there dream and brings unhappiness into their home.
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