Examples Of Social Construction In The Chrysalids

As Harriet Braiker once said: “Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” There are many people that always seek for being perfect, but what does that leads to? In Waknuk society, “perfection” just led to destruction. Joseph Strorm, the father of the main character David Strorm and the leader of this society, started forgetting about the values he should have had and also he was forgetting about the love he needed to give to his family. In addition, God sent Tribulation because He wanted society to become better than what they were being. The citizens in Waknuk were seeking to look more like God, according to the people from the Fringes, which were people who were sent to another place because they

the idea of isolating others due to their telepathic abilities and deviations is deeply rooted in John Wyndham's novel The Chrysalids. Therefore, this idea effects the plot of The Chrysalids. For example, humanity and equality are considered first, unfortunately for people with deviations it is not same. A person with deviations always faces constant hardship which is shown through David's and Petra's life. Additionally, isolation is an act of separating someone to be alone due to their beliefs, this is shown through David, Petra and Rosalind defending people with deviations.

Another predominate lesson in the novel is, how change is possible, but quite difficult to become accustomed to. David proves this point in a conversation he shares with Uncle Axel. Since David was raised in a society where change was not an option, but instead it was mandatory for the people of Waknuk to move towards Gods true image and move away from all deviations. David and many others had a hard time going against their way of living. David admits that he is reluctant to change saying, “Moreover, I was reluctant to admit the flaw in the tidy, familiar orthodoxy I had been taught (pg 64). Similarly, Waknuk is against change and always resisted when change was an option. David reveals that change is quite difficult to become accustomed to when he states, “The place may have been called Waknuk then, anyways, Waknuk it had become; an orderly, law-abiding, God- respecting community of some hundred scattered holding, large and small” (pg 17). This shows that their town, Waknuk, had never become anything different through-out many years. Also Joseph Strorm was a very strict and rigid man who unfortunately was at a point where he and many others who lived in Waknuk were brain washed with the Bible, and Nicholson’s Repentances. Therefore change was a possible option but hard to go forward with it. In this novel it therefore teaches us how change is possible, but overall very hard to do.

“Life is change,” is one of the main messages in the chrysalids, by John Wyndham. Despite this, the characters in the novel do not try to change the society they live in. David, Sophie and the people in the telepathic group do not make an effort for waknuk to be different for others.

In the book “The Chrysalids”, it shows how messed up the society there is, and is sort of a representation of our society now and back then. The similarities between the book’s society and our society back then and now are discrimination, fear and death/killing of the “minority”.

“‘She was competent, decisive, self-reliant; perhaps she intimidated them, for before long they drifted their attentions elsewhere’” (93).

Imagine a world where people are living for themselves. People thriving to succeed in their careers, working hard to accumulate wealth, and dealing only with issues that affect them personally. A world where people are completely oblivious as to who created them, what He did for them, and what their true mission in life should be. In Counter Culture, author David Platt, brings to light different problems we face in our world today. He discusses various topics, including marriage and sexual morality, giving each one real life examples of issues humanity experiences every day. But not only does he bring these issues to the readers’ attention, he gives them a biblical view of why these issues are disliked in the eyes of God, and several different steps they can take to help make a difference in our world today.

Change can affect a person’s life drastically and can be hard to accept. The Chrysalids is a great example of differences. In Waknuk, there are many strict rules against people who are deviations. They burn offences while singing hymns and cast out any person with deviation to the Fringes, even infants, and children. The society of Waknuk has cast Sophie to the Fringes even though she had a sixth toe, a minor deviation (56).

Discrimination in the novel is mostly obvious from Joseph Strorm, who is ironically the father of a deviant, David Strorm. He is the strictest devout of his religion in Waknuk and being the heir of Waknuk, he bears the responsibility to keep the society deviation-free. He does so by discriminating against deviants, like the society, and punishing them for being born ‘wrong’. His devotion to God and the ‘Definition of Man’ can be seen when he hit his son, David for wishing he had a third hand by mistake. He is sensitive to any form of deviation and punishes them harshly but he does admit that God is merciful, as seen from ‘God, in His mercy, may yet grant you (forgiveness)’. This is ironic as Joseph, being a devout, should be following God’s footsteps and be merciful in his actions too but he is willing to kill and punish people instead, contradicting his religion. His intolerance of deviations led him to discriminate against them, as can be seen from how he refused to help Aunt Harriet and humiliated her instead when she came begging for help to save her innocent deviant child. Joseph had also discriminated against the great horses unsuccessfully as the government had approved of them and there

Women have always had an impact on men! Mothers, sisters, aunts, friends, wives, or girlfriends are all part of this group of women, and can change a man in many ways. Similarly in the book, ‘The Chrysalids’ the protagonist David Strorm deals with three important women in his life, that have a huge impact on him. They all influence his character, and some help him through his journey, and some create problems for him. The three women, Aunt Harriet (David’s Aunt), Petra (David’s full sister), and Sophie (David’s childhood friend), have always helped out David, and supported through harsh times, and thus they have affected David in a big way.

Being different is okay. But do our societies accept these differences? Not only does the rejection of differences happen today, but has for the past many years. As we all know, in Waknuk, people are devoted to the True Image of Man, which isolates David from not just his community but also his family. The Waknukians consider mutants a threat, as they represent the devil in humans. As the Inspector had stated, “The Devil sends Deviations among us to weaken us and tempt us away from Purity. Sometimes he is clever enough to make a near-perfect imitation, so we have to always be on the look-out for the mistake he has made” (55). Furthermore, David has to hide his true self and he must live in fear, first for himself and Sophie, and then for Petra and the rest of the group. Besides his mutation being a challenge of his it also becomes dangerous

Change, the essential of life, it can be tranquility or turbulence, change has no set goal, it occurs all around us without us knowing. In the novel, The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham, change is the major problem in the society even though it is hidden in different aspects of life. To the society, change is their enemy, but it is themselves who are their enemies without knowing it. A society that fails to realize the inevitability of change will indubitably agonize.

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.

There really is no true or perfect human image yet society these days expects people to look and act a certain way and people can be very cruel if a person does not meet these expectations. In the novel The Chrysalids written by John Wyndham and in reality presently, many human rights are violated and these rights will continue to be violated as long as humans exist and people continue to be cruel. In the town of Waknuk, certain people do not follow the human rights but instead they violate them. Throughout the novel, many characters rights are being violated such as the abuse and torture David faces, the intolerance towards woman like Sophie and Petra for being different.

A creed is the beliefs or religion that people follow. We follow them because their beliefs they had are thought to be right and people grew into their society, and did not question their beliefs because the beliefs was passed down the from generations thinking it was right. But we shouldn’t always follow creed or those strong beliefs because the limitations it has on our growth as a person. Other reasons why we shouldn’t always follow creed. Those beliefs is because what they believe in isn't always right, that creed created many social conventions we have today. People struggle to find ourselves with those beliefs. David experiences this in The Chrysalids that’s why he decided to leave all the people of Waknuk and go to Sealand. He thinks it’s a great place for him to experience a new life where he can