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<title> Denial - a human way of solving problems? </title>
The main theme of Doris Lessing's novel The Fifth Child concerns using your instincts when reacting to and handling people who are different, and who you can't understand. It also concerns how those who are found to be different react to and handle their situation. The characters of the novel cover all possible ways of reacting. I've found this to be the main theme since it permeates the whole novel.

We are faced with Amy who with her syndrome brings out reactions like: 

"Sarah and William's unhappiness, their quarrelling, had probably attracted the mongol child (...)" (p.29),

	as a way of finding an explanation to why things that are found to be different actually occur, which is what Harriet is trying to find out throughout the novel. The reactions that Amy receives are a form of denial that takes form in them pretending she doesn't exist. It is only Sarah who reacts differently by protecting Amy from the family in order to prevent them from judging her. 

 "She gently put her hand over the sleeping Amy's head covered in a shawl, holding it safe from the world" (p.35)

The reactions due to Harriet being pregnant with Ben are expressed through the family starting to pull away from her, not understand why she is going through a change. From the moment Ben is born people are having enormous reactions to him because he is something they have never experienced before, something unknown. Again instincts are important on account of the dog and the cat instantly being afraid of Ben and avoiding him although they have no conscience telling them that he is dangerous. Amy reacts in the same way, which leads you to believe that she's not found to be a "real" human being, but rather considered having a lot in common with animals.
Sending Ben away to the institution shows the family's reactions and fears in a very intense way. Their instincts tell them to get rid of the problem as soon and as effective as possible, which shows in them denying Ben's existence. 
Ben being sent to the institution is also interesting from the point of view of the family finding him different treating him like he is something in-between a human and an animal. He can't be shot like an animal, but he can't be kept at home like a human. Instead, Ben being considered a gnome is just sent away to an institution where he will probably die: out of sight-out of mind. 

A fear of not being able to control what you can't understand drives Harriet to searching for Ben in order to get an explanation as to why he is what he is. When found, Ben is kept under control by threats and by Harriet creating a fear in him, which is how Ben himself controls those in his surrounding world. You get the feeling of the novel trying to teach you that we aren't as different from animals or Neanderthals as we might think.

When it comes to David, he denies Ben being his child. He compares Ben to an alien, but is Ben really that different from David concerning his way of reacting?

(...) and his smile included her. But on his terms; his eyes gleamed with thoughts she could not guess at. She felt she didn't know him...."David," she said quickly, to break the spell, but his arm tightened around her, and he gripped her upper arm with a hand she had not believed could be so strong, insistent. This grip said, Be quiet."p.16

Both Ben and David are driven by instincts, which makes you wonder how far mankind has come in its development from Neanderthals, who Ben is claimed to be one of. Our main reactions and reasons for behaving the way we do are instincts, then as well as now. What Harriet sees in David is exactly what she sees in Ben.

The theme touches on how those who are labelled different react and what they do to cope with it. In the beginning of the novel Harriet knows that she is different, but she tries not to be, and she is searching for one of her own kind. This also reflects Ben's probable search for someone who is "of his kind." 

(...) she would see Ben, standing rather apart from the crowd, staring at the camera with his goblin eyes, or searching the faces of the crowd for another of his kind." p. 159

The social setting is being brought out by the different social sectors that the family members come from. There are workers, scholars and people from the upper class.

All those committed in the institution show the aspect of time, which are the 60-70's when the likelihood of handicapped children being accepted was very small. 

"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."

The time they lived in also plays a significant role on account of it being the time of the war in Vietnam. When there is only misery and changes, people will more likely try to preserve what they have and try to illuminate problems as soon as they come along. You don't want to be forced to handle something, which you can't understand.
"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" (...) 

The Fifth Child really makes you wonder about mankind and how you yourself would react if faced with the same problems as the members of the family. The novel also subconsciously takes up problems concerning our modern society, which is something that everyone has an opinion about. These factors make The Fifth Child an emotional novel with a message to every one of us.
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