The Chrysalids

Product Information

David is born into this world with the power of telepathy. No one is able to detect this and thus he managed to survive in this cruel world. First he was happy that his mutation did not affect his appearance but as he grew, he understood the repercussion of getting caught. Then things took a turn for worse and he along with two others embarks on journey to the distant land. Rachel is the last remaining telepath in Waknuk after David, Rosalind and Petra depart to Zealand. As her own elder sister who was also a telepath had committed suicide earlier in the book, her possible fate of being left alone whilst the others depart carries even greater pathos. As an act of heroism, commitment and love, Michael remains behind with Rachel when they find out that the aircraft bringing the four of the telepaths to Zealand does not have enough fuel to also collect Rachel from Waknuk and get home again. He declares his intention to find some other way to come to Zealand with Rachel at some future time. Sophie Wender is a young girl born with six toes on one of her feet. Sophie lives with her parents in an isolated cottage somewhere north-west of Waknuk. Her deviation from the "norm" keeps her from associating with other children. She befriends David after he discovers her secret but promises not to reveal it. As David and the other telepaths grow older, they learn each others names and develop relationships with another. David and his half-cousin, Rosalind, are involved romantically. Another in their group, Anne, decides that she wants to marry Alan, a non-telepath and the same person who turned Sophie in for her deviation. Much to the protestations of the group, Anne goes through with the marriage. When Uncle Axel realizes that she has told Alan about the ability of everyone in the group, he kills Alan to stop him from telling anyone else. Anne kills herself when she hears the news of her husband’s death.

The apocalyptic Cold War era science fiction classic of a young boy’s quest for freedom in a post-nuclear religious extremist societyMany years have passed since a devastating nuclear war left much of the world in ruins. A small village in northern Labrador comprised of religious fundamentalists is on the lookout for what they call “deviations” - food, animals or even people who deviate from the socially acceptable norm. Once these deviations have been discovered, it is either to be destroyed on the spot or if you’re one of the few people born with a deformity, sterilized and banished from the community, destined to live in what they call “The Fringes”. David is upset by what happened to Aunt Harriet. He eventually confides in Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel shares some of his philosophy about how the true image of man is unknown: he points out that the Old People caused the Tribulation; thus, they were not perfect either. At the end of the chapter, the telepathic group, which includes a few other characters apart from David and Rosalind, share their names and locations with each other so that they can be more aware of each other in case of any emergencies. Rosalind Morton is David's closest friend among the group of telepaths. They become more of a couple later on in the book. She lives on a neighbouring farm and is David's half cousin. The Chrysalids is a story where those who are different live a short and precarious life. Their ‘uniqueness’ is perceived as an abomination and a threat to the community, and hence something that must be culled at any cost. This belief is held supreme, even more important than family and love. And within this setting, our main characters learn to survive and make sense of their situation. we can make a better world than the Old People. They were only ingenious half-humans, little better than savages; all living shut off from one another, with only clumsy words to link them. Often they were shut off still more by different languages, and different beliefs. Some of them could think individually, but they had to remain individuals. Emotions they could sometimes share, but they could not think collectively. When their conditions were primitive they could get along all right, as the animals can; but the more complex they made their world, the less capable they were of dealing with it. They had no means of consensus. They learnt to co-operate constructively in small units; but only destructively in large units. They aspired greedily, and then refused to face the responsibilities they had created. They created vast problems, then buried their heads in the sands of idle faith. There was, you see, no real communication, no understanding between them. They could, at their best, be near-sublime animals, but not more." (p.156)

That night David has a dream that Sophie is going to be sacrificed in the same manner in which the Strorms usually sacrifice mutant animals, in a Purification ceremony at dawn. Sophie runs barefoot around the circle of people and begs for help, but Joseph Strorm catches her and holds her down as his knife glints in the first light of the sun. David awakes crying.The novel was adapted by Barbara Clegg as a single 90-minute drama for BBC Radio 4, directed by Michael Bartlett, and first broadcast on 24 April 1981. The cast includes: David introduces John Wender, Sophie’s father, with whom he has a serious “man to man” understanding. David reflects that years later he could appreciate how grave the situation was for the Wenders, given that David knew their secret and was the son of one of the most powerful men. A powerful post-apocalyptic allegory of persecution and intolerance, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of John Wyndham's science fiction masterpiece The Day of the Triffids contains an introduction by M. John Harrison.

David walks home to Waknuk, his farm community, by cutting through the woods, keeping his hand on his knife for fear there could be dangerous and large wild dogs or cats. He cuts across four fields to get home, sneaking past Old Jacob. David describes the house he lives in, built by his grandfather, Elias Strorm. The house was built fifty years ago, the first house in the settlement; now it has many rooms, including storerooms and barns that were added over the years. The frame of the house is made of wood, and the walls are filled in with remnants of the buildings left by the Old People. David is unsure of where the name Waknuk comes from, suggesting that it may have been part of the name the Old People used. The great room is the center of the home, where the hearth is located, and the room is decorated with the religious text of Nicholson’s repentances. The repentances serve as reminders to remain pure and be wary of mutants. The Chrysalids is a post-nuclear apocalypse story of genetic mutation in a devastated world and explores the lengths the intolerant will go to keep themselves pure. In describing his grandfather, David alludes to the fact that he would eventually doubt the honor-laden picture of him that the rest of his family espouses. One again, David is emphasizing his breaking out of the constraints of his society. Elias Strorm is an allusion to Abraham of the Bible, the patriarch of his people, directed by God to leave his own country for another land. Much like Abraham, Elias left his own country because of his strong religious beliefs. Also like Abraham, we find out later that Elias disowns and would have sacrificed his own son, Gordon Strorm/the spider-man, because of his abnormality. One of the most thoughtful post-apocalypse novels ever written. Wyndham was a true English visionary, a William Blake with a science doctorate.”— David Mitchell Davie lives in Labrador - at least, that's what they think the Old People called it - and at birth passed inspection. The Bible and a book written after the Tribulation, the Repentances, clearly outline what the True Form should be, and that Mutants are an abomination to God and Man. Even at a young age when none of this is really understood, though, he instinctively keeps his ability to think-speak with several other children in the area, including his half-cousin Rosalind, a secret. It is only as he grows older, especially after he loses his friend and playmate Sophie, whose parents have done all they can to hide the six toes on each of her feet, that he really begins to understand the dangers of being a Deviant.

by John Wyndham

When I recall that day, I can certainly think of many similar situations. Some that occurred more in my head than in the three-dimensional world, but some were unmistakably pronounced enough to be etched in my mind forever. What is it, I ask myself, that makes me different? Is it my height, my unplaceable accent or my beard that made me stand out? Perhaps it is the colour of my skin. Or maybe it is the fact that I speak other languages that remain as cryptic to those pub-goers as their silent inquisitiveness was to me. Given Wyndham’s unstable childhood and young adulthood, with his parents divorcing at age eight and his failure at multiple careers, Wyndham's success is a feat in itself. Wyndham has a particular interest in human psychology and behavioral patterns. This accounts for the religious references in The Chrysalids, as well as for the varying personalities of characters in the novel and how they interact. Wyndham was inspired to write the science fiction genre because of an American magazine that he read called Amazing Stories in the late 1920s. He subsequently contributed a series of stories to Amazing Stories, as well as to another publisher called Wonder Stories. He also received the title of being the best British science fiction writer at least once in his lifetime. As his style focused on human behavior, he often featured irony, intentional ignorance, and hypocrisy in the characters of his novels. His books were so well received by his audience that 2 of his novels and 5 collections of his work were published posthumously. Miller, P. Schuyler. "The Reference Library", Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1955, pp. 144–45. It is easy to imagine how this apoplectic setting could have created controversies at the time of its release because after all only a decade earlier the world had suffered World War II, and the horrors were still fresh. But what appalled me most is that even after five decades nothing has changed and people are still trying to overpower each other, still committing heinous crime against each other in the name of religion and superiority.

On the way home, David suddenly realizes that in his religion’s texts, it states that any person who falls outside of the guidelines of the correct number of body parts, etc., is not considered human and is considered a “Blasphemy against God.” David is puzzled and perturbed: he does not understand how it would be possible that Sophie is not an ordinary little girl.And any creature that shall seem to be human, but is not formed thus is not human. It is neither man nor woman. It is blasphemy against the true Image of God, and hateful in the sight of God.” Walton, Jo (27 October 2008). "Telepathy and Tribulation: John Wyndham's The Chrysalids". Tor.com . Retrieved 11 March 2017. The adolescents are betrayed when one marries a “norm” only to commit suicide after confiding in her unsympathetic spouse. Uncle Axel murders the callous husband, but Petra’s awakened and uncontrolled powers send psychic blasts that paralyze the others, arouse suspicion and a witch hunt, and draw telepathic responses from Sealand (New Zealand), which sends an aircraft to rescue them. Pursued by Joseph Strorm and his troops, David, Petra, and Rosalind battle their way to the Fringes, where David’s banished uncle, Spider, captures them. Spider brutally beats David and leaves him to die, having announced his carnal designs on Rosalind. Sophie, her innocence corrupted, conceals David and murders the albino guarding Rosalind. As the posse descends for the kill, the Sealanders arrive, annihilating everyone except the young telepaths, whom they transport to Sealand to help build the world anew. Excellent writing as ever from JW or JBH or whatever combination of names you know this author by (can you end a sentence with by ?? ) For once it is not set in England, his native country, but although that normally means a lot to me, this book just delivers the feeling, the hopelessness, the bigotry, the narrow mindedness of what could be port apocalypse anywhere in the Western world. Great novel. The Chrysalids is set in a future world some centuries, perhaps even millennia, after civilisation has been destroyed in a nuclear war. We aren’t specifically told what happened, but it’s clear from numerous references in the book. When Wyndham wrote this novel in the mid-1950s, nuclear war was the favoured means by which the apocalypse was delivered in literature. Nowadays of course it has lost popularity to pandemics and climate change.