FREE ESSAY ON "THE CHRYSALIDS" BY JOHN WYNDHAM

"THE CHRYSALIDS" BY JOHN WYNDHAM

"The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham is an entertaining yet plausible story. It compels the
reader to think about human nature and our attitude to the world around us that we often
take for granted. 
The setting of "The Chrysalids" is several hundred years after a nuclear war. What is
left of civilization is a few small towns here and there all over the countries of the
world. The population is by the leadership what the "true image" is apparently meant to
be. If you are not of the true image then you are sent to live in the fringes. 
Many people and animals are born with birth defects caused by the nuclear radioactivity
that is still present from the nuclear destruction of previous years. The population that
is considered of the "true image" are cruel to the "freaks" or "mutants".
Some of the people in the novel are also very bigoted like David's father. He thinks he
is the king of the castle and can't be wrong. If he says something it should happen like
where he has an argument with the inspector about the giant horses or when he burnt that
families cat because it didn't have a tail eg "It is your moral duty to issue an order
against these so called horses!!" Various people including David's father all agree that
deviants are from the devil and should be castrated or thrown out of society. 
Another thing is that people are forced to agree with the laws and if they don't they are
also thrown from society where they would either be killed or spend the rest of their
miserable lives in the sloughs of the fringe people. 
Their attitude towards the world is OK I suppose. They don't really use that much of the
worlds resources in Waknuk or any of the other little towns around. They don't need to
think about how much longer the supplies of these materials are going to last because all
that they are using at the moment is trees, which they seem to have plenty of, and water
which they get from wells and rivers. There food they grow or hunt and cook and bake
things over open fires I would assume. But then on the other hand it looks like the
people on this other place where they take David, Rosalind and Petra are past the
technology of today's society and therefore I would have to assume that they only use
what is necessary as well because they seem to have more advanced flying contrivances and
should have overcome the problem of petrol usage etc. 
In conclusion it can be seen that in Waknuk etc. they are very primitive and will not go
forward.
Bibliography
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