John Wyndham wrote the “The Chrysalids”, as a science fiction novel, in post-war England during 1955. The atrocities of the past decade, the Holocaust in Europe. the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan and the beginnings of the Cold War between the Americans and the Russians, had affected the whole world. Although Wyndham wrote this as a science fiction novel, it can also be interpreted as a social commentary about the effects of war and mass destruction on humanity. Similar atrocities of ignorance and bigotry, hypocrisy and inhumane acts are evident in the novel as well as in society past and present.
The three societies in the novel, the Waknuk, the Fringes and the Sealanders display ignorance or bigotry and each of them believe their behaviour to be acceptable. The people of…show more content… “As the sun rose we would sing a hymn while my father ceremoniously slaughtered the two-headed calf, four-legged chicken, or whatever other kind of Offence happened to be.”(Wyndham 19) The Waknuk have such strong convictions and believe that absolutely anything that is deformed or different must be destroyed or sent to the Fringes in order keep the race pure. The people in the Fringes are all deviants cast out by the Waknuk society. “My father had an elder brother,’ I said. “He was thought to be normal until he was about three or four years old. Then his certificate was revoked, and he was sent away.”.... “Waknuk would be mine. It would be - except for this” He stretched out his long arm and regarded it for a moment.” (Wyndham 160-161) Gordon Strorm and the people of the Fringes are ordinary. They live in isolation for their imperfections and resent the Waknuk. As the Waknuk and Fringes consider themselves true
