The Chrysalids Essay, Research Paper

John Wyrndham the author of The Chrysalids is an extraordinary writer who has created this book in the state of two totally different worlds. Wyrndham has based this book on the different views toward blasphamies and how the characters all have a different approach on the subject. The three greatest ranges in different reactions to Blasphemes would come from the characters: Joseph Strorm, Aunt Harriet, and Sophie Wender.

Joseph Strorm is the character in the novel that has the greatest disliking toward Blasphemies. Joseph is the father of David Strorm. He is a strong believer in God and his life is based around his religion: “The Norm is the Image of God.” (p.27) In the book the reader gets the idea that Joseph is not a very good father and is very strict: “I’ll deal with this. The boy’s is lying. Go to your room.” (p.51) He is a cruel and inhumane person to anyone who has or is involved with a deviation. The reader would see this attitude when Aunt Harriet visits the Strorms and brings her deviant child with her: “Send her away. Tell her to leave the house – and take that with her.” (p.71) Joseph did not show any sympathy at all toward his own sister in law.

Aunt Harriet is the sister of David’s mother Mrs. Strorm. She enters the story half way through the book, where she goes to Mrs. Strorm seeking help. Yet the help she is looking for is not something Mrs. Strorm agrees with: “Nothing much! You have the effrontery to bring your monster into my house, and tell me it’s nothing much!” (p.70) Aunt Harriet is very loving, strong, and she fights for what she thinks is the right thing: “I shall pray God to send into this hideous world, and sympathy for the weak, and love for the unhappy and unfortunate.” (p.73) Aunt Harriet is also the proof of what happens to people who have a deviation or are trying to protect someone with a deviation: “Aunt Harriet’s body has been found in a river, no one mentioned a baby .” (p.74) She is a very will hearted woman who is one of the very few people in this time that has the will to speak her mind.

Sophie Wender is also another female fighter in this book. David and Sophie are close childhood friends when she is separated from the community because she has a sixth toe. Yet David and Sophie meet again in the Fringes about ten years later. David is one of the few protectors of Sophie’s secret of her deviation: “Will you keep a secret – an important secret – for her sake?” (p.12) Sophie reminds me of Aunt Harriet a lot with he ways they look at their problems. They both face their problems for what they are: “I was still staring at it when she flung her arms around my neck and kissed me, with more determination than judgement.” (p.49) When Sophie and David meet up again it is under the circumstances that David was the one being hunted as a blasphemy. Now Sophie is hiding David’s secrets and has become David’s protector: “They’ll never think of looking for you here, why should they?” (p.176) Sophie ends up dying in a battle against the search party that was after David.

The Chrysalids is a book that has such a range in different emotions toward different people. Wyndham is showing the issues of discrimination and makes you feel what it is like. Joseph, Aunt Harriet, and Sophie all have a different part in the issue of discrimination. Yet all three ended up dead in the end and that just proves why discrimination is so pointless.