John Wyndham The Chrysalids Mega Notes

John Wyndham The Chrysalids Mega Notes Significant to Themes Plot Character Techniques of Mood Style Writers’ opinions and influence Influence to Audience Themes 1. Authority and Harm Harm to self (progress and stagnation) harm to women (misogynistic and oppressive society of WN) harm to deviations People in power, like Joseph and Elias Strorm, oppress(1) and subjugate(2) large communities of people like Waknuk. They have power due being inherited through family. This reflects the backwards society of Waknuk and also the society’s resistance to change as their role is unchallengeable for other people. Such rigid and old-fashioned authority systems in Waknuk is additionally an introduction to learning about the world in the Chrysalids beyond Labrador(3), used as a means of comparison of David and the other people of Waknuk’s restricted view of the world. They also have authority due to their unquestionable beliefs and ability to harm people if they divert from such beliefs. They impose themselves like gods to others, which accentuates their self righteousness and ego. This portrayal of them paints a bad light on cruel and unjustified leadership. It is Wyndham’s critique and condemnation of how egocentric and cruel leaders can oppress and hurt many. 1. Oppress:

Women: Anne(misogyny), Aunt Harriet(religious tyranny and unmerciless oppression) and Sophie(subject of comparison and also representative of the Fringes people) Anne was introduced as a part of the Telepaths group, immediately letting readers understand the pain she goes through, alongside with the other undercover deviations, as she must conceal her true self to avoid sterilisation and banishment. This tremendous pain leads her to her later life struggles of desiring acceptance and normalcy. However, her perspective of a life that is happy and contented, is deeply flawed. ANNE: “(Michael trying to convince Anne to break off the engagement with Alan) It’d be like tying yourself for life to a cripple” – Communication will be an issue and having to suppress your true identity. “I’m a woman - I’ve the right to marry and have children.” – Wants to have a so called “normal” life she is unable to get if she keeps herself in the telepaths group. “(When trying to configure how the telepaths were to marry eachother, but then concluding that they are unable to hence they will) Never have any lives or homes of our own?” “(David, about his deviation and how it affects his family life to be) a suffocating half life with our families” AUNT HARRIET: “there were plenty of silent speculation whether my father would, as the law allowed, send my mother away if (her third child was a deviation)” “Superficially (Aunt Harriet and Emily) were not dissimilar yet In Aunt Harriet each feature had been a little softened” – Character foil. Aunt Harriet is what Emily could have been. Emily’s features are more strict and cold while Aunt Harriet is softer and

warmer. + “I looked at her that I was seeing my mother as she might have been – as, I thought, I would have liked her to be” “(My baby) is lovely too isn’t she, isn’t she a lovely darling?” – Seeking reassurance and trying to make herself and Emily that her baby is a normal. “(the feature that showed the baby was a deviation) such a little thing, you see, it’s nothing much” “Monster! Oh oh oh” – Repetitions shows the deep anguish and how she is speechless to Emily’s cruel response. “I kept her, and prayed, and prayed and hoped, and when I heard your baby had come early I thought perhaps God had answered my prayers” “(After Joseph condemned her) Why should I (be remorseful) I’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. I am not ashamed, I am only beaten.” – She believes she has done no wrong and is the victim of the society’s cruelty. “Beaten” suggests that Waknuk’s rigid beliefs have emotionally destroyed her. It also conveys helplessness and violence. “I shall pray” (repetition) “I shall pray God to send charity into this hideous world, and sympathy for the weak” “I shall ask him if it is indeed His will that a child should suffer and its soul be damned for a little blemish of the body” “They’ll take my baby away again like they took the others. Henry will turn me out. He’ll find another wife, who can give him proper children. There’ll be nothing, nothing in the world for me, nothing.” – Women’s sole person is only to be child bearers.

“Emily is the only person in the world who can help me” – shows how isolated and unsupported she is. Waknuk’s rigid society destroys family bonds and compassion. SOPHIE: “(She had a) small face, sunburned, and clustered about by dark curls” “She stood still for a few seconds as though uncertain about leaving the security of the bushes, then curiosity got the better of her and she stepped out” “When I landed she had lost her serious look and eyes were dancing with excitement” “No I mustn’t” (repetition) (when her foot got hurt)” “(Adult Sophie) there was dark hair hanging down on each side of a sunburnt face” (parallels) “(About Gordon) He wants her, doesn’t he?” “Should could give him babies?” “To be any kind of deviant is to be hurt — always” “If she were to give him children, he wouldn’t want me any more” “Don’t call him that (spider-man), we can’t any of us help being what we are.” “He’s kind to me, he’s fond of me, you’ve got to have as little as I have to know how much that means, you’ve never known loneliness. You can’t understand the awful emptiness that’s waiting all round us here.”

“Why didn’t they kill me? It would have been kinder than this..” “(David, about her Fringes house) looking at the shadows that danced on the rock walls, listening to the plop plop plop of the drips, and very likely this is luxury in the Fringes” “(Sophie helping to clean David’s wound)(parallel to her mother)” “(About the cross) You must get rid of that cross. We women in the Fringes do not feel that it has served us very well.” – Believes God doesn’t care or hear the people in the Fringes and seemed to be abandoned. Sophie must have prayed for divine intervention in the past but no help was given and lost all faith. “Damn you, leave me alone, damn you” “(Sophie’s appearance) uncared for, half naked in her ragged skirt, dangerously poised” “(In contrast with Rosalind) bronze hair shining the candlelight, her fine features upturned” “Damn you go on laugh at me, God damn your lovely face” – Both envious and jealous. Both a compliment and insult. “If he weren’t in love with you, what good would I be to him” – Sophie can never produce children unlike Rosalind. “[Sophie] looked down at her own soft moccasins, then at her short, tattered skirt” – She is almost as uncivilised like an animal Mrs Wender: “Nobody can let must know” (repetition)

“If anyone were to find out, they’d be terribly unkind to her” (euphemism) (talking about Sophie’s extra toe) “(Mrs Wender saw Sophie’s wound and) pause to look down, lift it and kiss it gently” “(David to Mrs Wender) I could not remember anyone saying before that I was a good boy I knew no response designed to meet such an event” “(David liked Sophie and thought she was) awfully brave, it must’ve hurt a lot” Wenders house: “It was a great deal smaller than my home” “but I liked it better, it felt friendly” “(Did not have repentances on the wall) for people to point to in disapproval” 1. Subjugate: It is the people who have never experienced the suffering of the Fringes or the pressure of being a woman in both Fringes and Waknuk who have the pride and authority to subjugate and punish people. JOSEPH STRORM: The Strorm house is a symbol of moral superiority: “Largest and best in Waknuk” “The great fireplace there was an object of pride - not vain pride, more of a matter of being conscious of having given the worthy treatment and materials that the Lord has provided : a kind of testament.” There is disapproval in pride, so they disguise