The Chrysalids Essay

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Pages: 3

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“The only difference between man and man all the world over is one of degree, and not of kind, even as there is between trees of the same species.
Where in is the cause for anger, envy or discrimination?”

-Mahatma Gandhi http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/discrimination

It is difficult to assert blame on Waknukians, in John Wydnam’s, The Chrysalids for discriminating against others because after all they have endured and all they have been taught they have a natural fear for that which is different. Many factors contribute to the Waknukians discrimination of those who are considered a ‘deviation’. One reason the people of Waknuk discriminate is because they do not know any better, tribulation has caused a huge blank in their history. Another reason they look down on those who may be different is the book the town of Waknuk listen to very inattentively called Nicholson’s Repentances. The final, and biggest aspect to the reason they discriminate is fear, the Waknukians live in fear; fear of tribulation, fear of the unknown and so on.

Tribulation was thought to be sent upon by God. It was a terrifying nuclear war which killed, and destroyed everyone and everything. Because the world the people of Waknuk live in is so un-evolved, they think it is right to discriminate, they do not know any better; therefore we cannot blame them. An example of Tribulation being a reason for their discriminating society is that the Waknukians know very little about the world before Tribulation. David had dreams about a city that he has never seen nor heard of, he explains that he told his eldest sister Mary but she just “…shook her head and told me that there’s no such place….” John Wyndham (5). This quote proves that people in Waknuk discriminate because they don’t know what a city, or boats, or cars are. They think that the small town they are living in is what the world has always been like, and that the Old People discriminated against those who

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