The Chrysalids Character Analysis

Although both the previous events did put David into an adverse position, the following experience changed David’s outlook on life for the better. Finally there was someone to tell David the true meaning of mankind, Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel tells him to be proud of his telepathic abilities, instead of praying to be what everyone else thinks is the true image. Uncle Axel also changes David's outlook on the true image of man, he explains to him how it's not one's physical features that define him, but what's in his mind.

In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse McClellan, is a seventeen year old girl who lives next door to Guy Montag. Clarisse met Montag when she was walking down the street, she looked at him surprised. Clarisse's appearance is mentioned as curious, because she is called as white. “..Her face was slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with tireless curiosity..”, “Her dress was white and it whispered”. (Bradbury 02) By comparing from the book, Clarisse can be someone who won’t “fit in” the book. She is more than a seventeen year old girl, she is filled with ideas and questions. Her character is different from everyone in the book, she was more positive and uplifting.

Secondly, John Wyndham's novel The Chrysalids shows the consequences of going against the beliefs of closed society through major conflicts in the novel. Firstly, Joseph became enraged and accuses David for wishing to have another hand. Wyndham writes, "you- my own son- were calling upon the devil to give you another hand!"(26). To explain, this creates a conflict between David and his dad, Joseph Strorm. David’s father is a strict believer in the Waknukian faith.

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.

Another predominate lesson in the novel is, how change is possible, but quite difficult to become accustomed to. David proves this point in a conversation he shares with Uncle Axel. Since David was raised in a society where change was not an option, but instead it was mandatory for the people of Waknuk to move towards Gods true image and move away from all deviations. David and many others had a hard time going against their way of living. David admits that he is reluctant to change saying, “Moreover, I was reluctant to admit the flaw in the tidy, familiar orthodoxy I had been taught (pg 64). Similarly, Waknuk is against change and always resisted when change was an option. David reveals that change is quite difficult to become accustomed to when he states, “The place may have been called Waknuk then, anyways, Waknuk it had become; an orderly, law-abiding, God- respecting community of some hundred scattered holding, large and small” (pg 17). This shows that their town, Waknuk, had never become anything different through-out many years. Also Joseph Strorm was a very strict and rigid man who unfortunately was at a point where he and many others who lived in Waknuk were brain washed with the Bible, and Nicholson’s Repentances. Therefore change was a possible option but hard to go forward with it. In this novel it therefore teaches us how change is possible, but overall very hard to do.

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. The people who conquer the challenges that life throws at them, they are the only one’s worthy enough of being called a warrior. In the novel, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham has his protagonist David go through some conflicts which he overcomes throughout the story.

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.

Although Chris McCandless’ controlling and toxic family environment was a major motive for his escape, his deep-seated internal battle was simply an irresistible impulse for discovery and liberty. Chris’ journey shows a new level of freedom; what true independence holds. He set out into nature alone without support of family or friends, searching for a path unlike those of most, and running from a barred cage of conventional living. Unsatisfied and somewhat angry with himself and his life of abundance in money, opportunity, and security, his preceding experiences and determined character lead him to an inevitable flee into no-mans land. Throughout the novel, Krakauer wants the reader to understand that there is more to Chris than his habit of criticising authority and defying society’s pressures. He needed more from himself, and more from life. He wasn’t an ordinary man, therefore could not live with an ordinary life. Krakauer demonstrates this by creating a complex persona for Chris that draws you in from the beginning.

At the age of 5 years old, not only did he began to take showers with his father, but when they went to the beach club, his mother bathed him in the shower in the presence of other naked women. By the age of 6 years old, David noticed the power men had over women, “when a male entered the women’s side of the bathhouse, all the women shrieked”. (Gale Biography). At the age of 7 and 8 years old, he experienced a series of head accidents. First, he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. A few months later he ran into a wall and again suffered head injuries. Then he was hit in the head with a pipe and received a four inch gash in the forehead. Believing his natural mother died while giving birth to him was the source of intense guilt, and anger inside David. His size and appearance did not help matters. He was larger than most kids his age and not particularly attractive, which he was teased by his classmates. His parents were not social people, and David followed in that path, developing a reputation for being a loner. At the age of 14 years old David became very depressed after his adoptive mother Pearl, died from breast cancer. He viewed his mother’s death as a monster plot designed to destroy him. (Gale Biography). He began to fail in school and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. He sets fires,

David is an important character because he shows us the idea of acceptance. This is shown when David finds about Sophie’s sixth toe when she injured her ankle, and still wants to be her friend despite her being a deviation. In Wanuk - the place where David lives- deviations, like Sophie, are not accepted are human. David mentions multiple times that he knows being around Sophie is wrong but even though he knew he would be shunned for his actions, he remains Sophie’s friend anyway. Others are not as accepting as David, in fact, most people are quick to disown deviations or attempt to report or harm them. An example of this is when Allen sees Sophie’s six-toed footprint by the river then threatens to report what he saw which would mean Sophie’s capture, exile and/or death and possibly even her families too. This manner of thinking is shown again when the inspector says: “Although deviations may look like us in many ways, they can never really be human,” This, again, shows that deviations are frowned down upon by most of Wanuk. This conflict of acceptance reminds me of desegregation. People of colour would be treated less than human when they started peacefully protesting against their treatment and some were even killed. In fact, most of what is said reminds me of racism.

Sophie allows for doubt to pierce its way into David’s life for the first time. At the start of the novel, when David first meets Sophie, he gets an insight into a deviant’s life. She has proven to be the first blow to efficiently impact David’s thoughts and make him question the authenticity of his society’s belief system. “It is hind-sight that enables me to fix that as the day when my first small doubts started to germinate.”

his father and dead mother. David's father has an idealized vision of his son as

Throughout the novel, David, the protagonist is abused and tortured several times by his very own father, Joseph Strorm and his recently discovered Uncle, Gordon. David’s father is a strict believer in his religion and is unyielding on the subject of mutations and blasphemy’s. If anyone neglects to follow his beliefs and rules, he has serious consequences for them, like with David, once Joseph found out that David knows a blasphemy, he immediately subjected to abusing him for answers. David’s father continues to beat him until he receives the information he demands. David has been abused more than once by his father and this is evident when David says, “I knew well enough what that meant, but I knew well too, that with my father in his present mood, it would happened whether I told or not. I set my jaw,

Throughout the book Sophie had an exponential effect on David development even when not present. Firstly, when David meets meets Sophie and learns about Sophie’s supplementary toe, David accepts Sophie for who she is. “ It was all twisted and puffy - I didn't even notice then that it had more than the usual amount of toes...” (Wyndham 9). This is critical to David's development as it influenced him to ignore the rules of the uneducated town of Waknuk. Secondly, when Sophie is a suspected deviant David helps her run away to the fringes evading the law. “I managed to find some candles and light them,and when I had blown up the fire and put some more on, that helped to make the place seem less lonely.” (49). In this quote David is trying to make the house seem occupied so the people of Waknuk do not get suspicious. This is imperative as for the first time in his life David rebelled against the rules

Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to