The Chrysalids Vs. David's Society

In the story everyone is colorblind so no one can choose different colors and have no opinion, they also have the same bike and clothes. If you are a girl you have to wear a ribbon in your hair until you are nine and then once your ribbon gets taken out of your hair you get a jacket. For instance, “ ”Our people made the choice, the choice to go to sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with differences.” He thought for a moment. “We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others” “ (124). One of the problems with the community having sameness is that the newborn children could never experience sunshine or snow, but they never have to experience pain or starvation. They feel, wear, and look the same, the community will never feel different, but the only difference is their age and little accessories. For example ,“ It’s the way they live. It’s the life that was created for them. It’s the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor” (192). Jonas and the community’s whole life has been controlled by elders. They have never been able to make their own choices without the elders. This represents how sameness appears to be the antagonist and how they can never be

In chapter 1 David keeps Sophie’s important secret for her sake and to protect her from the government, because she could get hurt. In chapter 5 David is willing to fight Alan for Sophie’s sake and feel like he’s doing the right thing. Later in the book when David and his friends run away from Waknuk because they would of gotten hurt. If they didn’t run away they would of been “broken” and tortured like Katherine. In both these situations the characters threatened by the government or another person and the author lets them rebel because they are in harms

In The Chrysalids, the majority of the characters have an intense and irrational dislike or fear of strangers and foreigners. Even the main character, David, who is in fact a mutant had prejudiced fears towards his first encounter with the fringes people. He expects them all to have a frightening, and disgusting appearance. Also, the villagers in Waknuk are so scared of mutants that they hang sayings on their wall. David declares, “The largest was the one on the back wall, hung to face the door which led to the yard. It reminded everyone who came in: WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT!” (12) In response, the citizens of Waknuk isolate themselves from deviations and mutations because they think that mutants are not considered pure and do not reflect the true image. Contrarily, people should not be punished or killed for not falling into a category or stereotype made by society. In the days of Old Jacob’s father, all deviations including humans, were burnt. Later, the society’s ideals lead to the destruction of their own community in the battle between the Fringe people and the Waknuk people. This proves how isolating a person from others causes violence, pain and war. Individuals have to learn the importance of believing in one’s own thoughts and not letting a controlling society decide one’s fate. Human beings should try to accept others and

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.

The views of change in Waknuk and Zealand are conflicting. While one embraces change and thinks that it is essential in life the other frowns upon change and believes that it is the devil working. In the sci-fi novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, David and other children have telepathic abilities, but living in Waknuk, a rural Christian town, deviations are outlawed, causing the group to keep their abilities to themselves. Petra, the strongest member of the group, begins to communicate with a far away source in a city called Zealand where telepathic communication is put on a pedestal. The group begins learning new ideas regarding change in Zealand and realizes that Zealand might be their only place to escape to. In John Wyndham’s novel The Chrysalids fear of change affects Waknuk and Zealand because the Waknuk society is built around change being unacceptable due to firm religious views while the Zealand society has embodied change as it is a necessity to them.

Throughout the novel, Wyndham expresses how acceptance of the true image creates an isolating environment for individuals with opposing ideas. As David grows up, he realizes that there is absolutely no respect

Throughout the story, his parents and grandparents do numerous horrible things to him. His grandmother abused him, his mother lied to him and was constantly mean towards him, and his father gave him cancer. David’s childhood was incredibly rough, and in order to make it feel a bit less overwhelming he painted the city of Detroit as the ‘bad guy’. In this story there are numerous examples of this ‘neglect’ and other tragedies David is faced with. For example in chapter two David discusses this neglect, “Around that time Dad must have gotten a promotion or a raise.

When David was growing up his father pushed his own beliefs on his son, and up until David met Sophie he believed what his dad had told him, “the Devil struts his wide estates, and the laws of God are mocked .” (Page,20) His father taught him young that deviants were sent by the Devil to make Waknuk impure, and therefore had to be punished, and sent back to the fringes where the Devil ruled. One of the things that were heavily pushed upon all people of Waknuk was this as David 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.” Although David did not comply with this quote he still knew it word for word by heart. Sophie (David's best friend as a child) had a huge impact on David's life. David really cared about Sophie, and although his dad told him that all deviant were sent by the devil he thought that there is no way Sophie could have been, “But Sophie isn’t really different - not in any other way.” (Page,55) David knew he had a special talent, but he never thought of it as a deviation. He was telepathic, and so were others in Waknuk, but they swore never to tell anyone else because of the risk of the inspector or David’s father finding out and banishing them. Even though David was born, and raised in Waknuk with all the push for being normal he knew he was different, and couldn’t continue to live there anymore. When David, Rosalind, and Petra escaped Waknuk to live their lives free they telepathically came across a woman that lived in Sealand. (AKA New Zealand) The group found out there were more telepaths and were not the only ones with this different power. This definitely shows that David had a huge change in personality from the beginning when he

In 1955, John Wyndham saw tremendous errors in the way of humanity. Now he must’ve been a very insightful man because he saw problems that would be relevant for many years to come; problems that still exist today. John Wyndham wrote “The Chrysalids” as a warning to today’s society. He did this by using the three different societies to showcase the pros and cons of the three main types of government in the world, showing us that people who are unable to adapt in an ever changing world will face massive setbacks, and finally, he uses todays world as a warning to the characters in the story.

“Unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one's own.” Imagine a world, where when the physical aspects differ from the normality of society often regulates your future. John Wyndham depicts a fictional town, Waknuk, in the novel The Chrysalids, readers get a deeper perspective of the intolerance displayed by the Waknuk civilization through many experiences lived by the main character of the novel, David. “The mutant, the enemy, not only of the human race, but of all species God has decreed; the seed of the devil within, trying to unflagging, eternally to come to fruition in order that it might destroy the divine order and turn our land, the stronghold of God’s will upon Earth.” (Wyndham.75) in this passage David

From the beginning to end of the novel many epic things were shown by David in order to protect his friends and family. Firstly, David is the first one to see Sophie’s six toes. David shows he can be trustworthy. He agreed to keep Sophie’s deviation a secret and in the process he gains her parent’s trust. “Will you keep a secret, an important secret, for her?” She asked. ‘Yes, of course’ I agreed” (12). In this passage having a deviation is a crime in the Waknuk community. People who had a deviation or the people who would keep the deviation of their own a secret would be severely punished.

Life associated with a strictly religious society is challenging, especially when dealing with judgmental and inequality actions shown towards others. In The Chrysalids, John Wyndham demonstrates that certain people are so attached to their religious thoughts and beliefs that they reject other’s opinions, not realizing the flaws of their theories. The society in The Chrysalids blindly resists to these changes by intolerating the abnormality, making the changes more difficult to achieve positive results in the community; thus one needs to embrace the imminent change instead of fearing it. To begin, the act of intolerance is significantly displayed in the society. More specifically,

First of all, David’s microsystem consisted of his mother, father and five brothers. His alienation from the family lead to his hating the relationships in his mesosystems. He explained that “Inside, [his] soul became so cold [he] hated everything.” (Pelzer, 1995, pp.133) His primary caregiver was the source of his torment and caused a strange love-hate relationship between him and his mother. David desperately sought to earn his mother’s love while at the same time cursed her

When one allows allows themselves to blindly accept traditions and predecided ways of living, not only does it put oneself in risk or danger but it also puts others at risk over danger too. The story “The Chrysalids” by John Wyndham shows that by conforming to others beliefs or lifestyles are damaging to not just one person, but to a whole community.The story also shows that relationships and bonds within the community can be ruined. Most importantly the story shows that blind acceptance can cause so much destruction to a person's well being.

Throughout the book Typee, some may argue that the uncivilized live a happier life than the civilized through work, relationships, and customs.