Personal Desires in the Chrysalids

The Waknuk community present in the Chrysalids is a very religious society where their believes hold utmost importance and where everything and everyone must follow the “Images of the Old People” or those defined by them. Babies are punished for being deviants even though they are innocent, as was the case with Aunt Harriet’s child. Anna, a member of the Group was considered a deviant. The only wish she had was to lead a normal life like women her age and settle down to start a family. However, the society being ruthless as they are denied her the chance to do so. Sophie, a child David’s age has to live in constant fear shadowing her life because of the fact that she has six toes on each foot and is classified as a deviant. In my opinion, the Waknuk society is such a place where an individual’s desires and needs hold no flame in front of their believes and unless the Government benefits from them, there is no point of them being fulfilled.
All desires and needs have to be deemed acceptable by the society, if not it is considered unacceptable even if it is breaking the strong relationship between a mother and a child just to follow their believes. Aunt Harriet wanted to save her baby by “borrow(ing)” Emily’s baby in order to obtain a certificate for her child. However, she was kicked out of her sister’s house by her own sister and was forced to give up the child because it did not follow “The Definition of Man”. In the Waknuk Society, everyone must follow the “Definition of Man” if anyone has so much as to even a little deformity or a habit out of the ordinary; it can call upon unwanted attention from the society and is looked down upon, for instance David’s “left-handedness caused slight disapproval”. The seriousness and extent to which people of Waknuk believe the “Image of True People” is shocking as not even blood relationships can move them. They force a mother to give up her child just because the baby does not fit the “Definition of Man”. A small, tiny