Review Tuesday: The Chrysalids [1955] by John Wyndham

 

The Chrysalids

by John Wyndham

In a post-apocalyptic world, God-loving people fear and destroy the deviations. 

Out from nowhere a friend recommended reading this book. I wasn't familiar with it, but the same author had written DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, which was already on my reading list, so I decided, why not?

 

What you can gather from the story is that at some point a huge nuclear war erupted, destroying civilization as we know it and pushing humanity back into savagery. Somehow some pockets of humanity remained and took up the Bible as their guide for everything. They also believed the destruction of the planet was the Tribulation from God because people weren't obeying his word. 

 

In this future, set centuries from now, people are living like the old west. Riding horses. Using candles. The Bible is the ultimate law. Unfortunately when you tie government with fundamentalism (or anything really) it can take a dark turn. While adhering to the words of what made someone a human, in God's image, anyone who didn't match up was sterilized and ostracized. Deviant animals or crops were destroyed. Winds sweeping from the irradiated wastes would still have an impact centuries after the war.  

 

This story is from the perspective of David.  His family, essentially, created their town and had something like a patriarchal power over the area. They were also the most orthodox of the families. Everything had to be exactly by the book. The fear was always that allowing the deviations would bring another Tribulation from God. Everything must be kept pure. David had his first moment questioning authority when he met another child in the woods. At first Sophie seemed like any other rambunctious child, but she had an additional toe, therein making her a deviant. When another local discovered this abnormality, it was reported and Sophie's family was forced to flee. David's own father flogged him to get information on this child and her family. They were captured, and nothing was ever heard from them again. This caused David to think seriously. If they went through these measures for something as minor as a tiny, little, extra toe, what would these townsfolk do if they were to find out about him and his friends who are able to communicate telepathically?  

This is another one of our cautionary tales from a science fiction writer. Written during the 50s, people were more consumed with keeping appearances than with the content of a person's character. The libertarian in me certainly went along with the concept, people should be allowed to do whatever they like as long as it doesn't negatively impact my own. While I, in essence, agreed with the point that the story was trying to make, I also feel it was a very naive point as well. People pass judgement on anything and everything; they can form an opinion based on the car you drive or the color of your socks. Many of these impressions are silly and not properly formed, but they wouldn't prevent someone from attacking you because of your skin color, or some other reason. 

 

But I digress. This is almost a feel-good story, but there's too much tragedy contained within for you to really think the ending is a happy one. Some hard lessons in there. It's definitely a very interesting book and worthwhile to read. Don't worry, I really only gave away the first couple pages. There is quite the adventure in there you should still read about! 

 

Chrysalid: in the pupa stage, enclosed in a cocoon, before turning into a butterfly. The Chrysalids are the "deviations" evolving from and moving away from the human worms. 

  

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