Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Fear and its effects
Religious influences on society
Fear and its effects
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Fear and its effects
“Social control is best managed by fear” (Michael Crichton). According to Michael Chrichton fear is used to control people’s actions. Fear is one of the biggest impacts on human behavior therefore it can result into taking over someone’s life by constantly worrying and living in distress or even guiding oneself in a deathly situation. This is where The Chrysalids by John Wyndham begins to link in. The people of Waknuk, David and his group of telepaths, Sophie and blasphemies in general are in constant fear of dangerous events that can occur. Fear has the ability to make anyone’s life stressful that can result to a drastic change in behavior and decisions, which explains why the people of Waknuk wrongly accuse blasphemies of being evil. Constant enforcement of the rules are made which leads to secretive behavior for some in order to live which is all caused by religious teachings and the norms interpretation of the bible. Fear results in the constant fear of conformity, secretive behavior, and obsession with religious teachings that preserve the conservative views of the community of Waknuk.
The Waknuk society is constantly enforcing conformity of deviations, has severe punishment if one knows any information, and does not tell the police. The reasoning for this is occurrence is out of fear of Waknuk society has towards deviations tempting the pure, as a result severe conformity to the true image of God has been developed out of a set of beliefs, which brainwashes the human mind and much worse, the human spirit. David’s Aunt Harriet even says that, “ I shall pray to god to send charity to this hideous world, and sympathy for the weak, and love for the unhappy and unfortunate I shall ask him if is indeed his will that a child shou...
... middle of paper ...
...ght up which is the explanation for their narrow minded thoughts regarding to the deviants.
To reiterate, fear links to constant fear of conformity, secretive behavior, and obsession with religious teachings that protect the conservative views of the society of Waknuk. What I have learned in The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is that fears affect perception, your perception changes according to your psychological state and it affects your behavior as well. People reflect regarding their fears all the time and as they feel that they will come upon them, they start becoming apprehensive. When an individual is afraid of something, they may experience unusual judgment that they would have never made before which all the main events that occur in The Chrysalids relate. The main thing I learned was the two powerful emotions that result our actions is fear and love.
Waknuck is also based largely on Religion - it is a Christian society. Most of the prejudices are formed from the Bible. Any creature that is against "the true image of God" (or a mutant) is called a Blasphemy. The Christian religion (and indeed other religions) have been the source of numerous prejudices in modern society in Britain (for example sexism and homophobia) and indeed conflicts (for example the conflicts between the Republic and Northern Ireland). In the novel '1984' no-one follows a religion as such, as far as the people of Britain in 1984 are concerned there is no God, the complete opposite of the radical religious views of the people of Waknuk. Most people in Waknuk have been 'brainwashed' by Christianity in the same way many people in Great Britain in 1984 have been 'brainwashed' by the party and Big Brother. Each use repetitive slogans, in 1984 such slogans as: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." are used and more subtly in Christianity in the form of prays and commandments. The Party and Christians each worship a figure, Big Brother and God respectively, neither people can be completely sure of there presence but convince themselves that they exist nevertheless. The power lies with the Party in 1984 but lies with the church in Waknuk.
Despair is evident throughout the book, more so from Waknuk citizens oppressing those who are different. “Katherine, a girl from a neighboring farm who could produce thought shapes similar to David’s was found out and taken to the inspector, where, she was ”broken”. Sally, who was also taken with Katherine to the inspector, said to the rest of the thought shapers, “They’ve broken Katherine…Oh Katherine darling… [t]hey’re torturing her…She’s all clouded now. She can’t hear us.” Her thoughts dissolved into shapeless distress.” (Wyndham 130). Clearly Katherine had been severely hurt enough to reveal her ability of producing thought shapes which would put all the thought shapers in danger and tortured enough that Sally sends distress showing how hopeless they indeed are. Furthermore when David found out his father was apart of the party coming to battle the Fringe people he is in sheer distress. He states, “ ‘Purity…’I said. ‘The will of the Lord. Honor thy father…Am I supposed to forgive him! Or try to kill him?’” (182). David is conflicted and rather flustered between his respect and love for his father yet as a deviant they are fighting for different sides and he knows either he or his father will die in the end. Additionally, during the battle itself, one of David’s most loyal friends parishes before his eyes. D...
David finds out that the teachings of Waknuk are not the only one. In The Chrysalids Sophie,
Some of the people in the novel are also very bigoted like David’s father. He thinks he is the king of the castle and can’t be wrong. If he says something it should happen like where he has an argument with the inspector about the giant horses or when he burnt that families cat because it didn’t have a tail eg “It is your moral duty to issue an order against these so called horses!!” Various people including David’s father all agree that deviants are from the devil and should be castrated or thrown out of society.
Most women in the novel play the role of bystanders and supporters of their husbands. In Waknuk, the women don't dare to oppose the laws of anti-mutation as they fear the punishment they might receive from God or the society itself. They have to follow the customs of Waknuk, whether they agree with it or not. An example would be Sophie's mother, Mary Wender. Even though her daughter is a deviation and she is supposed to unhappy with the religious laws in Waknuk, she still wears a cross as she is expected to do so within the society. This can be seen from David's first encounter with her, when he noticed the “conventional cross” she had on her clothes. Another example would be during all the times David was hit by his father, his mother, Mary Strorm never once had comforted him. This could probably be because she knew that if she'd helped David, it would've been like going against her husband, which she could not do no matter what as a woman in Waknuk. The women have almost no right to voice ther opinion or raise doubts about Waknuk's religion, even if they find it vey unfair.
Now, we can’t do that - but you and Rosalind can. Just think that over Davie. You two may be nearer to the image than we are” (64). David has always been doubtful about his thought-shaping powers because of the Waknuk community’s stance on mutants and deviations. When someone like Uncle Axel says that he believes David is closer to the image than norms are, David feels more confident in himself and his place in Waknuk’s twisted society. Uncle Axel is a fatherly figure and role model to David, so David confides in Uncle Axel and trusts his instincts and his knowledge. Therefore, David is getting closer to accepting himself as a unique individual, with the help of Uncle Axel’s suggestions. In addition, Uncle Axel clarifies what makes a man, man. David thought it was their soul but Uncle Axel states: “Well, then, what makes a man a man is something inside him… No, what makes man man is mind. It’s not a thing, it’s a quality, and minds aren’t all the same value; they’re better or worse” (79,80). Uncle Axel is a firm believer that the Definition of Man is nonsense and now he expresses his beliefs to David. David is conflicted between Waknuk’s
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. This is clearly evident in The Chrysalids, The Waknuk society uses the religious doctrine as a method to oppress and create ‘purity laws’. Being the only safe ‘haven’ amongst unchecked Deviation in the Fringes and beyond, the people of Waknuk are constantly afraid of being overrun by these Deviations which they perceive as intolerable evil and the ‘Devil’s work’. As a result, strict conformity with the purity standard is set up.
The Waknuk society, after the devastating war, have to re-build and remodel the societal views and actions that have perished with previous generations. having lost almost all known ways of living, follows the only two books left to form their ever-growing society: the Bible and a book called Nicholson’s Repentences. These two books causes the surviving society to be very fundamentally Christian, and very strict about Christian laws. The so called founder of the Waknuk society is Elias Strorm, David’s grandfather, who is only mentioned in the book for he is dead. Elias is very religious and very influential to the people of Waknuk. "Respect was frequently on his lips, and fear of the devil constantly in his heart" (Wyndham, 16). His responsibility in guiding the Waknuk society is passed down to his son, Joseph Strorm, who is very religious in following the two sacred books mentioned before. Joseph’s strong beliefs taught by his father, alike nearly all of the community, leads him to see very little room for acceptance of those who
prevails. They risk the opinion of the public eye in order to preserve righteousness. Rorschach is
People could not help but to experience themselves as determined or created by God Kelly and Dreyfus (2001), so much that it never crossed their mind that identity could be determined in any other way Kelly and Dreyfus (2011). God controlled the structure of the society in that, the Kings and Queens ruled by divine right meaning God chose them specifically to be the rulers of society Kelly and Dreyfus (2011). This structure incorporated everyone in that all people fell into a place in societ...
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
Each of them describe why each way of handling a situation and just result in another form of disaster that leads you t o the same place. One is to control what you look like, to control what you can and cannot do you’re your life, and control you as person because of a mutation. Finally, each of these three examples of conformity and being scared is no reason on why we should be afraid or try to control differences after a tribulation. You should pick up where you left off and learn from your mistakes. As these three examples show there is no right or wrong way to control people.
The people of Waknuk do not utilize the advantages of permitting deviations and blasphemies to be a part of the society, consequently this decision troubles the society. First, the society does not let deviations that are beneficial to the society live amongst them. When Uncle Axel explains to David about how the churchgoers would not accept spices that had come from a foreign land because the spices could be a deviation, then Uncle Axel concludes, “Whatever they were, they are profitable enough now for ships to sail south again” (61). The rejection of the spices by the churchgoers was to their own disadvantage to exploit the profitability of the spices. Second, due to the high deviation rate families are force to destroy their crops and livestock. David asks Angus Morton what is troubling him and Angus replies, “Weeks of work gone up in smoke, pigs, sheep and cows gobbling up good food just to produce ’bominations” (87). Since the society does not accept deviations, therefore Angus Morton’s hard work is profitless. Finally, the attacks by the Fringes people are a vexation to the inhabitants of Waknuk. The sentimentalists in Rigo outlaw the burning of blasphemies, which allows blasphemies to live in the Fringes and Angus Morton fiercely says, “You get more Fringes dwell...
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.