David And The Telepaths In The Chrysalids By John Wyndham

David joined forces with the Philistines because his faith was weak and he faked being mentally insane. Therefore, he was really not mental but struggled with believing in Gods covenant. Not to mention he had two wives he just was refusing to go out in battle and support his troop by being an effective leader. In modern day terms he punk-out sending his troops out to battle without him while he played the coward staying behind stirring up trouble.

As with the fear of the unknown, the fear of differences has influenced the decisions made by many leaders, especially extremists. It has led to prejudice, bias, bigotry, and discrimination. In the book specifically, discriminations are faced by Blasphemies such as Sophie and Joseph’s older brother Gordon (colloquially known as the Spider Man) and Offences which is deviance in animal. according to Jacob and old farmer “They should be burnt like they used to. But what happened? The sentimentalists in Rigo who never have to deal with them themselves said: Even though they aren’t human, they look nearly human, therefore extermination looks like murder, or execution and that troubles people’s minds” (88), his views are shared throughout Waknuk and it is hard not to believe it if you are normal because Waknuk is isolated and there is hardly any outside influence. This leads to the recurring theme of True Image and purification in the form of slaughtering deviant animals, burning entire crops of deviant plants, and banishing Blasphemies to the Fringes. When David first learns of Sophie’s extra toes he starts iterating in his head the quote “And God created man in his own image. And God decreed that man should have one body, one head, two arms, and two legs: that each arm should be jointed in two places and end in one hand: that each hand should have four fingers and one thumb: that each finger should bear a flat fingernail…” (10-11) he tells us that he knows the quote word for word proving that the community goes by the Bible word for word is obsessed with everything being perfect. The new information of telepaths cause further discrimination, as mentioned above, for it shows that mutations are no longer just physical. Just as it is in the real world, discrimination that is faced by the people with lesser power causes isolation, anger and

David was always a type of person inclined to be melancholy. He was always a religious person. He made sure that he did everything right, because he was afraid of death. He performed all the duties of religion without a true conversion.2

The practices of a collective society such as the one in this book disregard all belief in the individual. By doing this, the society and its leaders brainwash the people into having no personal priority or authority. Everything is done with the betterment of the entire group in mind, no sense of self involvement. Their life is fated in almost every

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. Blind acceptance also stunts economic growth and hinders the lives of others. The community of Waknuk in John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids demonstrates that blind acceptance and strict social conformity leads to the abolishment of human beings. This is displayed by the constant reminder of the barrier keeping them from their utopia, the cruelty towards deviations and the cruelty towards non-deviants.

Adversities are hard to avoid in one’s life; everyone has to face them at one point in their life. The effect it has on a person’s life can change their perspective towards the world. When problems arise individuals traditionally become stunned to such difficult situations that they face. The adversity becomes a brick wall that is challenging to break down. An individual's true character in addition to their nature is revealed when they face a conflict in their life or a challenge. In the novel, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham has his protagonist David go through some conflicts, which he overcomes throughout the story. David struggles to find a life where people would appreciate his uniqueness, not sameness which has an impact on who he thinks

This meand he is being selfish and makes perfection farther away. Secondly, Joseph does not tolerate people thinking outside the box. This character responded the following to his when he was trying to tie his tie, but could not do it, so he said that if he had another hand he could tie it all right: “You- my own son- calling upon the Devil to give you another hand!” This shows hoe Joseph Strorm wants everything as it is written and he does no encourages creativity. Now in day, creativity is needed to invent new identical things, and this things are the ones that get closer to perfection. Thirdly, David also shows the image he has about his father. In one of David’s dreams, Joseph was killing a friend David had made called Sophie, just because she had 6 toes on her feet. “I explained my dream of my father treating Sophie as he did one of the farm offences…” David said. Joseph Strorm seeks so much for perfection, that he is willing to kill people who have small defects. People who want to kill show the poor love they have for everyone else, and a society without love will never reach perfection in any way. To have a society where everything is perfect, a lot of values are needed, and Waknuk had a clear lack of them.

The relationship between David and God is one of both fear and love. David, who is chosen by God to rule the people of Israel, is loved by God. However, it is clear in points of the Bible that the wrath of God overcomes his love for David. To begin with the love that God has for David, it is easy to see when David places the Ark of God in Jerusalem, officially giving it a place to rest after several years of wandering. We see this in the dialogue when it is said “And David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obededom to the City of David with rejoicing” (2 Sam. 6:12). With the Ark itself

Through a veil of lies man obeys the State, the Church, the mass opinions of their peers, or any other organization that they view to be in power. This affords him a false sense of safety and protection. In his obedience, man feels strong allowing him to be controlled by the fear of being isolated or having undesirable repercussions greet him as a result of any disobedience. Throughout history it has been evident that, for the most part, the few in power have ruled over the majority. The foundation of this relationship has been “the few” equating obedience with virtue and disobedience with sin, resulting in man not only needing to obey, but wanting to obey. Man’s inability to see that he has lost his ability to disobey and stand up for what he believes and values, instead of what he has been brainwashed to believe and value, will inevitably ensure the destruction of all civilization at the hand of man. Man’s only saving grace will be his ability to realize

David’s dad strongly disapproved his son to even think about being a mutant. It was a serious sin to want to be or think to be a “human” imaged against God’s will. It was obvious that the Waknuks were injustice to the mutants.

The extensive amount of rules and controls of the society Prometheus lives in has lead him to insanity. Prometheus of Ayn Rand’s Anthem society’s amount of control over the community and has restricted the human capacity to a slave like being due to having no choice over what you do with your life. Contrary to the superior’s belief, Prometheus’s vision of his society would make humans able to reach their highest ability and prosperity.

David's inauthenticity leaves him always feeling unsatisfied. He doesn't belong anywhere, not amongst heterosexual or homosexual. Everywhere he's a stranger. I truly believe that David knew deep down inside what needed to be done to finally become happy, but he also knew that this was a decision he could not live with. If there was such a thing as a pill to make him be the man his father wanted him to be, David would have taken it in a heartbeat. He wished to be apart of the American dream where he worked to support his good lady and their four delightful children as they lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, he did not

There really is no true or perfect human image yet society these days expects people to look and act a certain way and people can be very cruel if a person does not meet these expectations. In the novel The Chrysalids written by John Wyndham and in reality presently, many human rights are violated and these rights will continue to be violated as long as humans exist and people continue to be cruel. In the town of Waknuk, certain people do not follow the human rights but instead they violate them. Throughout the novel, many characters rights are being violated such as the abuse and torture David faces, the intolerance towards woman like Sophie and Petra for being different.

While that is true, this difference is also a similarity. The reason Joseph and David are such important characters and why they are so strongly against each other is because they both think they are doing the right thing and are stubborn about it. Readers might see Joseph and the bad guy, being against mutations and beating his son for hiding one, but he was brought up this way, hating mutations and thinking the worst of them. He thinks he is doing the right thing and following God's will by getting rid of, what he deems, the devil. David is technically doing the same thing. He's doing what he thinks is right, and although they may not see eye to eye, they are both doing what they think is

In the Chrysalids, a young boy named David lives in a society where perfection is the norm. David possesses a telepathic ability which is kept hidden from the residents of Waknuk due to it being considered a deviation. Although it is kept a secret, David shares this information with few people, one being his Uncle Axel, whom he trusts. Uncle Axel is David’s greatest ally because he supports David by offering advice and protecting him from the start of his journey to the end.