Artificial Security In The Chrysalids By John Wyndham

Human beings desire acceptance in society. As social creatures, it is rather difficult for an individual to restrain from being influenced and being adapted to the environment around them. People will readily conform to the social roles that they are expected to portray in certain environments. The Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment are substantial examples of how much the environment controls individual behavior and how obedient people are to authority, despite their moral beliefs. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass portrays such examples of how it relates to the experiment.

In this article, “Just Do What the pilot Tells You” Theodore Dalrymple and “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” by Crispin Sartwell express two different viewpoints expressed towards obedience. While both authors are addressing the issue of disobedience, Dalrymple approaches the issue, stating, “Some people think a determined opposition to authority is principled and romantic” (Dalrymple 3) while on the other hand, Sartwell emphasizes that authority, especially hierarchies are the most “evil” thing in our society. Despite the well-executed argument of the two author's, Dalrymple takes a self-centered approach, forcing the reader to agree with his opinion.

The world would be much different if society does not pressure one to look like perfection. In John Wyndham’s novel The Chrysalids, each and every character must be like everyone else and if they are not, the village sends them to live in the outskirts of the towns where the chances of survival are close to zero. Though everyone looks the same, people think about the concept of society and sameness differently. There are three different types of people in each village. Number one, there is Joseph Strorm, leader of Waknuk, whose obsession with the norm renders him blind in seeing and welcoming the value something possesses, instead all his eyes allow him to see are what is in front of them. Then there is David Strorm and his group of deviants

Numerous individuals face threatening situations in their lifetime, however, there are different reactions and solutions to counter them, such as the “fight or flight” response. When an individual is placed in a situation to endanger themselves to save their companion, most individuals would rather protect themselves in despite of fear. In the novel Chrysalids John Wyndham explores a civilization that obsessively focuses on religious precepts and the importance of purity. Individuals with uncommon qualities and deviations such as would not meet this society’s ideals and are banished. Characters such as David, Rosalind, and Michael, who have unique telepathic powers and are part of a telepathic group, successfully keep their abilities hidden for a period of time. When they are discovered,

Humans want to be like other humans. Likeness breeds security, and with this, people will go to great lengths to conform to their peers. This concept dictates a large part of everyone’s daily lives in the society built around them, as demonstrated very clearly by Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible; a story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. In this case, because people conformed to what people around them were saying and doing--accusing people of witchcraft and executing them--twenty two lives were lost. After considering how the events of The Crucible portray conformity and the place in society conformity occupies, it becomes quite clear that conformity, while it has it virtues, can result in many societal issues that can be easily

Totalitarianism diminishes the idea of individuality and destroys all chances of self-improvement, and human’s natural hunger for knowledge. In George Orwell’s famous novel, “1984”, totalitarianism is clearly seen in the exaggerated control of the state over every single citizen, everyday, everywhere. Totalitarianism can also be seen in the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, in which humans are synthetically made and conditioned for their predestinated purpose on earth. The lack of individualism will lead a community towards a dystopia in which freedom is vanished by the uncontrolled power of the state.

Life associated with a strictly religious society is challenging, especially when dealing with judgmental and inequality actions shown towards others. In The Chrysalids, John Wyndham demonstrates that certain people are so attached to their religious thoughts and beliefs that they reject other’s opinions, not realizing the flaws of their theories. The society in The Chrysalids blindly resists to these changes by intolerating the abnormality, making the changes more difficult to achieve positive results in the community; thus one needs to embrace the imminent change instead of fearing it. To begin, the act of intolerance is significantly displayed in the society. More specifically,

Several conflicting frames of mind have played defining roles in shaping humanity throughout the twentieth century. Philosophical optimism of a bright future held by humanity in general was taken advantage of by the promise of a better life through sacrifice of individuality to the state. In the books Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 clear opposition to these subtle entrapments was voiced in similarly convincing ways. They first all established, to varying degrees of balance, the atmosphere and seductiveness of the “utopia” and the fear of the consequences of acting in the non-prescribed way through character development. A single character is alienated because of their inability to conform – often in protest to the forced

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World introduces us to a futuristic technological world where monogamy is shunned, science is used in order to maintain stability, and society is divided by 5 castes consisting of alphas(highest), betas, gammas, deltas, and epsilons(lowest). In the Brave New World, the author demonstrates how society mandates people’s beliefs using many characters throughout the novel.

Huxley and Orwell manage to depict a world where each individual’s life has been predetermined by the government. Despite being written over a decade apart, the authors implement similar techniques in their works to maintain an orderly society. These three tactics include the controlling of information, the silencing of the common people, and the manipulation of the mass population. Both leading parties strive to develop and foster their citizens to comply and work in their favor to exemplify the significance of uniformity. Moreover, the novels include protagonists, who initially counter and threaten the values of the World State and Big Brother, but conclude with them being morally defeated.

Among any community there is a set of boundaries that must be respected under penalty of being labeled as deviant. Consequently, a community will create agencies of control in order to punish and fight against all the forms of behavior considered as deviant. In his Study in the Sociology of Deviance, Kai T. Erikson defends the point that deviant forms of behavior are a natural and beneficial part of social life. One of his main arguments is that, in our modern society, “the agencies of control often seem to define their job as that of keeping deviance within bounds rather than obliterating it altogether” (Wayward Puritans 24:2). Now, what if society gave to its agencies of control the role of annihilating deviance? What if the set of

Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading

In conclusion, it is safe to say that Huxley 's utopia went about achieving its status in the wrong way. Mankind has lost its free will to the controlling powers of a system. This system cannot be called government, as it is more akin in characteristics to slavery. Man no longer has freewill and order is kept not through respect and intellect, but via degeneration and conduct. The former sections of this essay present strategies and techniques used to maintain order in a society of individuals. Finally, it may be argued that the Brave New World protects society by locking them in a cage of ignorance; however, this is at the cost of freedom, and this is unacceptable. Mankind needs be free in order to progress as has been explained. Protection is all well and good but not at the cost of

In the Sci-fi futuristic novel “Brave New World”, published in 1932, Aldous Huxley introduces the idea of the utopian society, achieved through technological advancement in biology and chemistry, such as cloning and the use of controlled substances. In his novel, the government succeeds in attaining stability using extreme forms of control, such as sleep teaching, known as conditioning, antidepressant drugs – soma and a strict social caste system. This paper will analyze the relevance of control of society versus individual freedom and happiness to our society through examining how Huxley uses character development and conflict. In the “Brave New World”, Control of society is used to enforce

The Chrysalids takes place in Waknuk, a society based on rigid laws and a strict religion. The citizens value what they believe to be normal, enforcing harsh consequences for those who go against the norm or possess traits that are undesirable or feared. Their society developed with strong influences from The Bible and Nicholson`s Repentances, with laws and customs put in place to keep Tribulation from happening again. Deviations and otherwise undesirable traits are not tolerated in this society, anything in question or suspicious is carefully inspected to ensure it is not an offense. The people of Waknuk are a very traditional, law-abiding community built on generations of fear and extreme regulations.