The fifth child door Doris Lessing

1. Explanation of the title: The title of the book, “The fifth child” is based on the fifth child of the Lovatt family; named Ben. He was born when David and Harriet just wanted to wait with another child. On that time they had already four children and they could hardly manage it financially. This fifth child is different in all options. It grows faster and shows earlier signs of life. Harriet felt rejected by him, although she loved to feel the first movements of the other four children. She has a very hard pregnancy and is always tired. After the birth of Ben everything changes in Harriet’s and David’s life. They used to be so happy, but with Ben they feel different. Just like when he was in her belly, Ben grows much quicker than the other kids, and never shows love to anybody. Everybody feels rejected by him, and most of the people who came to their house in the holidays now stay away.

2. When and where does the story play: Where: The story takes place in a town around London in a large Victorian house in an overgrown garden.

When: It takes place from 1965/1966 – 1986/1987. The period covered by the book is from the meeting between David and Harriet, until Ben is 12 years old.

3. Description of the main characters: - Harriet, the mother of the five children, is the main character. She tries to educate her children as well as possible, but after the fifth child is born their aren’t five child any more, but one. - David, the father of the five children. - Ben, the fifth child, born in 1974 and a mistake. He’s a monster and is therefore put in an institute, but Harriet takes him back and he slowly burns into a criminal. - John, a young man who helps in the garden, Ben likes him very much and they do a lot with each other. - Derek, a friend of Ben on his second school.

4. The theme(s): The theme is that our society is incapable of dealing with certain types of people living in their midst, that sometimes problems are insoluble, that happiness isn’t something one possesses and the road to disaster may be irreversible.

5. The actual summary: In the unconstrained atmosphere of England in the late 1960\'s, Harriet and David Lovatt defy the \"greedy and selfish\" spirit of the times with their version of tradition and normalcy: a large family, all the expected pleasures of a rich and responsible home life, children growing, Harriet tending, David providing. Even as the day\'s events take a dark turn - an ominous surge in crime, unemployment, unrest - the Lovatts cling to their belief that an obstinately guarded contentedness will preserve them from the world outside. Until the birth of their fifth child. Harriet and David are stricken with astonishment at their new infant. Almost gruesome in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong, demanding and violent, Ben has nothing infant-like about him, nothing innocent or unsullied - nothing normal by society\'s standards. Harriet and David understand immediately that he will never be accepted in their world. And Harriet finds she can’t love him. David can’t bring himself to touch him. The four older children are quickly afraid of him. Family and friends who once gravitated to the Lovatts\' begin to stay away. Now, in this house, where there had been nothing but kindness, warmth, and comfort, there is restraint, wariness, and anxiety. Harriet and David are torn - as they would never have believed possible - between their instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and unlovable baby. Their vision of the world as a simple and benign place is desperately threatened by the mere existence of one of their own children. As the novel unfolds in spare and startling scenes, we are drawn deep into the life of the Lovatt family, and are witness to the terrifying confusion of emotion that becomes their daily fare as they cope with Ben - and with their own responses to him - through this childhood and adolescence.

6. Your very own opinion: In my opinion this is a very good book. I had to read another book this year and I asked my mom if she knew a good one. She told me that this was a impressing book and I started reading it. I think it is a very nice book and interesting to read.

a. Which part of the book did you like best and why? I liked the part when Harriet takes Ben home again from the institution. It really shows how much she loves Ben and that she can’t live without him around. Although she knows that it’s hard to have him at home. It really shows her mother-feelings. That’s why I think that’s the best part. The whole story is close to reality I think. Some people have children that are
handicapped. It’s hard to take care of those children, but they want them at home, because they love their children. They don’t want to put their child in an
institution; it’s still your child. There are children like Ben in the world, it’s hard to take care of them and you
don’t know what to do with them. But like I already said, you still love your own
child, no matter what, in most cases. But for some parents it’s too hard and they
can’t live with it.

b. Which character did you like best and why? I liked the character of Harriet the best. It has always been a dream of her to have a big family with lots of kids and it seemed that her dream came true. But when she was pregnant of her fifth child, a lot changed. But even though all the problems at home she didn’t lose her mother feelings and took care of Ben. That shows that she’s a good mother and a strong woman.