Discrimination In The Chrysalids

The Chrysalids is a novel filled with various themes that impact the story. Though they are often exaggerated, they still reflect society today. Many of the themes overlap each other and are supported by similar evidence in the book. Fanaticism, religious superiority and discrimination are particularly relevant as many of the main undertones in the book have religious roots. Fanaticism and discrimination also branch from the religious beliefs in the novel.

Fanaticism is an extreme commitment to and idea that enables individuals to commit immoral acts for their belief. In Waknuk where the main characters lived, religious fanaticism has been normalized. Joseph Strorm, the protagonist David’s father is a zealot who exhibits fanatical tendencies

as Waknuk’s leader. He has uncompromising standards and is intolerant of any opinions that conflict with his own. Harriet, Joseph’s sister-in-law, comes for his family’s help after having a baby that doesn’t fit into the description of a human that Waknuk abides by. Joseph shows no sympathy for her and David overhears him “explaining about the need for Purity in thought as well as in heart and conduct, and its very particular importance to women.” (Wyndham 74) Joseph believes that Harriet is deluded and tempted by the Devil. He thinks that Harriet doesn’t understand and that it is “[Their] duty to see that she does.” (74) These unwavering beliefs lead to extremism, which is found frequently in our own society. David says, “They broke the news to [him] the next day that [his] Aunt Harriet’s body had been found in the river, no one mentioned a baby…” (74) Joseph is responsible for her death as the result of his fanaticism as a God-fearing man. This extreme commitment to an idea is displayed on the cover as a man with a cross on top of the book, Nicholson’s Repentances. The book and the cross symbolize the religion in the story and the man in the cross represents the people of Waknuk who are bound by these ethics. The man is not struggling to resist these, showing their willingness to conform to the demands of the religion due to the belief that they are better than those below them.
Religious superiority is projected as a power imbalance, which enables one to represent his or her own beliefs as correct due to the majority supporting the same cause.

In Waknuk, unreasonable actions in response to things outside the established norm have been fully accepted and integrated into their society because very few people question the beliefs, fewer speak out. The narrator David, is still young and impressionable when he meets Sophie who has an extra toe on each foot, a real-life example of a blasphemy, a person who does not fit in the neat image of man. After he meets her, he begins to question the beliefs he has adopted. David thinks, “The ways of the world [are] very puzzling…”(14) after realizing that “there was nothing frightful about Sophie.” (14) David later has a dream that represents his changing values after being able to comprehend the brutality of Waknuk’s primitive thinking. In his dream, “[They] were all gathered in the yard, just as [they] had been at the last Purification. Then it had been a little hairless calf that stood waiting, blinking stupidly at the knife in [his] father’s hand; this time it was a little girl, Sophie…” (28) Waknuk’s values are a perversion of a righteous moral compass and this is also embodied in his dream as Sophie “[implored] them to help her, but none of them moved and none of their faces had any expression.” David’s observations of Waknuk’s community are depicted as thinking Sophie is less than an animal to his father

and those who shared this belief. Their faces would not be expressionless if it were for someone who they believed was equal to themselves. The people held down by the book on the cover represent the superiority present in The Chrysalids. They are depicted with small abnormalities, embodying the population that aren’t considered normal. The cross with the man representing the followers of Waknuk’s prevalent ideology is also on the book, thus higher than the ones being weighed down beneath them. The man in the cross is also notably larger than those below the book, their importance not as valued. Religious superiority evokes a “Holier Than Thou” notion, leading to discrimination as a result of the ignorance.
Discrimination preventing evolution will eventually collapse on itself because change is a fundamental factor of a functioning society. The whole population of Waknuk has been brainwashed into a hateful discrimination. When someone is different, they are considered less than human, a work of the Devil and they are treated as such. When Sophie’s mother realizes David had seen Sophie’s sixth toe, she was afraid. She asks him to a keep secret because she realizes how two little toes could endanger Sophie so easily. She insists that “If anyone were to find out, they’d-they’d be terribly unkind to her.” (12) Sophie is just like any other child, aside from small deformities but because of the standards of Waknuk, she must hide herself. Gordon Strorm is Joseph’s elder brother and was on his way to inheriting Waknuk if he had not been deemed abnormal. He is described as unnaturally lanky but when he was younger “He was thought to be normal until he was three or four years old. Then his certificate was revoked, and he was sent away.” (160) He wasn’t an unimportant child when he was sent away, his father, Elias Strorm was the very leader of Waknuk yet he was shown no mercy by him. On the cover, discrimination is represented by people beneath the holy book. They are dressed differently than the man above, distinctly grubbier and illustrated as unclean. There is a clear distinction between the two sides, showing the oppression and inequity demonstrated throughout the book.