Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his first inaugural speech, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Fear is an emotion caused by a feeling of doubt or uncertainty that someone or something is dangerous or a threat, whether or not it is. Fear in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child is provoked by similar threats; the dangers of societal pressure and fear of social rejection. Both novels show how societal pressure causes fear and rejection of “others”. Victor and Harriet were both fearful of not fitting into their pack-minded communities. Due to their own personal fears, they ended up fearing their own “creations”, causing the creature and Ben to be ostracized because of their “otherness”. When Victor created the creature in Frankenstein, he immediately looked at it with disgust.…show more content… His actions soon began to match his looks, when the creature began causing havoc in the community. The creature was neglected and viewed as a monster because of Victor’s own personal fear. In The Fifth Child, directly after Ben was born, the entire family feared him. His hideous looks and abnormal and oppressive acts immediately revealed that he had no chance of being accepted in society, let alone his family. His entire family was too stubborn to put their judgments and fear of social rejection aside for the sake of their son. Fear in both novels comes into play not only with Victor and Harriet fearing themselves and their “creations”, but also fearing the opinion of society. The fear built around Ben and the creature turns them into monsters and isolates them from the society they belong