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Humanity In The Chrysalids

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Humanity In The Chrysalids
The Chrysalids, John Wyndham is a science fiction novel about people who can communicate with their minds. This essay with prove that the book has both hopeful and pessimistic view on humanity. The books has very inhuman laws and has inhabitable lands, but also has a hopeful future.

BP1- In the Chrysalids, people believe that if you are any different from the norm, you are sent from the devil and hateful in God’s eyes, but some people are able to see past these rules. At the beginning of the book, David helps a girl, Sophie whose’ foot is stuck between two stones. To get her foot unstuck they have to take off her shoes. David discovers that she has an extra small toe on both her feet. This makes her a blasphemy which means she can be killed or exiled. David doesn’t understand why she is considered hateful in god’s eyes, “Surely having one very small toe extra...surely that couldn’t be enough to make her ‘hateful in the eyes of God..’?” (p.14) He also doesn’t see how she could be sent from the Devil, “I could not believe that the Devil had sent Sophie.” (p.55)This shows that people are able to see
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At the beginning of the book, David wishes for a third arm to help him with his chores, his dad hears this and is outraged. ‘“You blasphemed, boy - You found fault with the Norm’” (p.27) David is then whipped for wishing for a third arm. An inspector then comes to David’s house “‘David, the concealment of a blasphemy - not reporting a human deviation - is a very, very serious thing.”’ (Inspector, p.51) This shows us that people think Later in the book, two of the think shapers get captured and torched. “‘they’ve taken Sally and Katherine…”’ (Rosalind, p.122) “‘They’ve broken Katherine...They’ve torturing her...she’s all clouded now.”(Sally, p.130) Sally and Katherine get torched because people find out about their ability to talk through their

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