Intolerance in the Chrysalids

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Evan Wilson                                                                                   Evan 1

Mrs. Wood

English 11 2

November/15/2002

Intolerance in the Chrysalids

The Chrysalids was by John Wyndham. It Involves Children that have ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) living in a community that does not tolerate differences. They are eventually found out and escape to Sealand (New Zealand). All societies in this novel practice intolerance in one way or another, even though Wyndham doesn’t approve of it. We see it with the Norms, the Fringes, the Sealanders and even people of today. I feel this was a great way of depicting intolerance.

Intolerance is most visible in this novel with the Waknuk civilization. You could also say that the Strorm family is one of the most intolerable families there. David didn’t have a lot of choices growing up, including the tolerance of deviants. His father was considered the leader of the Waknukians, so he would put signs up around his house like “Watch Thou for the Mutant”, and “The Norm is the Will of God”. These came from there set of laws, Nicholson’s Repentances. So all these combined, David wasn’t given a lot of choice growing up. This society’s intolerance was by far the worst out of all of them. If one corn was mutated in the field the whole field was burnt to the ground. The most horrible example was when someone who was different was banished from there community to the fringes. You would think they would have toned it down a little bit after David’s aunt committed suicide; she committed suicide because she gave birth to

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mutant baby, and did not want to be found out. This is horrible example of the intolerant nature of the Norms.

Intolerance, surprisingly enough, was also practiced in the fringes. The people who lived in the fringes were intolerant towards the people of Waknuk. They felt anyone without a type of mutation or difference was inferior to them. An example of this is when Rosalind is fleeing the town with all the ESP children. Rosalind still had a cross on her dress from Waknuk, which was a sign that she was “a true human”, and was ...

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