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<title> The Fifth Child - aspects of setting supporting the theme </title>
To me, the main theme of Doris Lessing's novel The Fifth Child is the clash between the happy family life that the main characters David and Harriet try to create and the unknown, uncivilized aspect that their fifth child Ben brings into their lives. It is not only Ben himself, being the kind of creature he is, but the mere atmosphere he creates, and the emotions he evokes in people. Ben takes with him all the things they wanted to keep out of their family: fear, evil, arguments, tears. The statement that the novel seems to make is that it is impossible to create a sanctuary for peace and happiness - evil will always find its way in. The question is then how to deal with it, and who to put the blame on. I would now like to bring out three aspects of setting in the novel that I think support or interact with this theme.	
	The first aspect I would like to discuss is a combined geographical/sociological one. David and Harriet moved to a small town to avoid the brutality of London. They wanted to leave the greedy and selfish spirit of the sixties behind them, and create an old-fashioned family life with sound values. Ben is not yet born, and they seem to be well on the road to success. But outside their refuge, the world is changing. The easy good times are gone, and even in their little town brutality and violence are increasing. It seems as if there is no way to escape evil. I consider this change in sociological setting important, because it is a foretaste of what is to come and an emphasis on the fact that you cannot shut out bad things forever. "These days, Harriet would not dream of walking at night by herself, but once it would not have occurred to her not to go anywhere she pleased at any time of the day or night." (pg. 30)
	Next, I would like to bring out an aspect of psychological setting that I think interacts with the theme. In this aspect, David and Harriet are each other's opposites. Harriet does not believe in bad luck. They have chosen happiness, and happiness is what they deserve. In contrast, the marriage between her sister Sarah and William is not a good one, and therefore they "attracted" the Down's syndrome baby Amy. David dislikes this fatalism of Harriet's. When Ben is born, the issue turns to a conflict. David considers it to be plain bad luck. Anyone could have had Ben, but now it just happened to be them. Harriet, on the other hand, considers it to be a punishment. "She said to David, 'We are being punished, that's all.' 'What for?' he demanded, already on guard because there was a tone in her voice that he hated. 'For presuming. For thinking we could be happy.'" (pg.141) I think this aspect of psychological setting is important because it deals with the question "why?". Why was it impossible for David and Harriet to preserve this refuge of theirs - was it just bad luck or was it a punishment for even believing it was possible to escape evil? I also think it shows how Ben separates his parents, turning them to the kind of quarrelling people they never intended to be. 
	Last, I would like to discuss an aspect of emotional setting that is common for most characters in the book, namely the way in which people that are different are dealt with. Baby Amy, the Down's syndrome, is first considered a shame. She appalls her father, and lying there in her mothers arms she is covered up so as not to upset anyone. But as Amy grows, she is accepted and loved for what she is. She is full of love and kisses, and expects everybody to love her back. Ben, on the other hand, is a hostile little troll. He does not expect to be loved - probably he does not even care. No one knows what Ben is thinking, and he is the uncivilized side personified. Even when he was a baby, the warmest emotion that his mother could bring about for him was pity - pity for not being able to like him. But then, as Harriet goes to the institution to which Ben has been sent, a change actually takes place. "Her heart was hurting as it would for one of her own, real children, for Ben looked more ordinary than she had ever seen him, with those hard cold alien eyes of his closed. Pathetic: she had never seen him as pathetic before." (pg. 100-101) This makes me wonder what criteria we have when we instinctively decide whom to love and whom to dislike. Both Amy and Ben are different from what we consider normal. But why is it so impossible for people to love Ben, and so easy to love Amy? I think Harriet's reaction in the institution is a hint. Even if she does not fear Ben with her mind, he is a threat. Too different to earn normal love, too strong to evoke pity, Ben is left with rejection. Only when Harriet for the first time sees him as pathetic, can she bring out a momentary feeling of maternal affection. I think this pervades the theme of the novel - you cannot accept the unknown if it is a threat. We tend to tolerate people that are different only if we feel confident that we are superior to them, and that we are able to control them in each situation.
	In short, I think the theme of The Fifth Child is very well supported by several aspects of setting. The book being a horror story on the psychological level, I found aspects of emotional setting most important. I also think that these psychological aspects make the novel valid on another level, namely by making the reader think about how we look upon people that are different and threatening in our own lives.
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