The Chrysalids

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Chapter 2 discusses David’s family tree and his grandfather, Elias Strorm, the founder of Waknuk. Elias' son, Joseph, who is David's father, is an important man in their town and is a very religious individual—as is his wife, Emily. The Strorm’s family life is filled with religious practices. The religion is focused on keeping the “pure” form of humans, as defined by their text Nicholson’s Repentances. Anyone who does not conform to the norm is considered Deviant. Most Deviants live in the Fringes, the area outside of Waknuk and the surrounding farming communities. As a farming society, Waknuk is also concerned with destroying any genetically mutated plant or animal, known as Offences. For mutant crops, they are burned. Mutant animals have their throats slit at dawn. David becomes good friends with Sophie. They discuss the lives of the Old People, with each of them accounting for what their elders have told them. David, at one point, while doing a tedious task, says in the heat of the moment that he could have managed the task better if he'd had another hand. As a result, David is punished by his father and is made to repent and to seek forgiveness for his statement. David has a dream at the end of the chapter in which Sophie is being purified/sacrificed like an “Offence” and that his father slits Sophie’s throat with a knife. J. Francis McComas, reviewing the American release for The New York Times, declared that the "outstanding success" of the novel lay in Wyndham's "creation of humanly understandable characters that are, after all, something more and less than human" and concluded that the novel "will be well noted and long remembered". [9]

Author John Wyndham brings us into the mind of David, a young man born with telepathic powers. Where his own personal deviation is not visible to the community, he and others who share this ability must keep their special talent a secret for fear of death or banishment. Can David and his fellow friends keep their special skills under wraps or are they doomed to live among the fallen?This isn't a nice cosy world for anyone—especially not for anyone that's different,' he said. 'Maybe you're not the kind to survive it, after all” 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. I asked myself this question many times and, on many occasions, to understand how and in what ways was I different to those around me. While this is all wildly subjective, I didn’t understand the true and inescapable nature of this quandary until one winter evening I walked into a pub in South West of England. 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.

While that open-endedness is, in that way, thought-provoking, there is another open end, however, which cries out for a never-written sequel: Petra. Her power is unprecedented, and the story sets up the fascinating tension of what an innocent young child with uncurbed power might be capable of in the defense of herself and her friends. But it never goes anywhere with the idea: she never actually does anything with it. With that setup, there really should've been a followup to explore the issue, in my opinion. 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)

It is a young adult novel, but don't let that stop you, the issues are adult. David Strorm is the main protagonist, a young man who lives in a fanatical religious community, who is able to send telepathic messages to others like him. His farming village is very traditional. Their traditions include death or banishment for anyone who isn't "perfect". Perfect people have no odd physical deformations, and no mental ones either. 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: