I love Sci-Fi, and I love post-apocalyptic novels, and The Chrysalids is one of those that excites me because it is both.
I love Sci-Fi and Fantasy because they are such a captivating tool for exploring the human state. Good Sci-Fi and Fantasy are philosophy via our imaginations; they’re somebody’s “What If?” illustrated in a way that allows us to become emotionally and intellectually active. I like Sci-Fi in particular, because in some ways it doesn’t exclude our own world’s realities to as great an extent as Fantasy, and that makes it more interesting to me; it’s caused me to think about the “big questions” in the context of the world as we know it, which has sparked my own interest in science. The Chrysalids in particular is a better book for teaching at the secondary level, but I plan to use Sci-Fi itself as a classroom tool for my future elementary schoolers. Yes, I definitely think that children can appreciate Sci-Fi at the elementary school level, and I think that it can be used as a great tool for building interdisciplinary connections at the elementary school level and beyond. I don’t think schools do that with Sci-Fi enough, which is kind of disappointing.
Okay, I’m getting to the book now. The Chrysalids definitely is a great example of a novel that prompted me to think about the “big questions.” It starts out kind of slow, but the pace picks up steadily as you read more; Wyndham shapes the reader’s experience to be one of discovery, and you work out more of the answers for yourself alongside the main character. I like that.
The book takes place after the world as we know it has been wiped out by nuclear war. No one really knows why. Life — plants, animals, and humans — have had to reset all building blocks and basically re-develop from what was left. Little is known about humanity as it existed before the nuclear disaster, other than what rumors exist from people’s guesses, and pre-war humans are referred to as the Old People.
The only literature that has survived from the age of the Old People is the Bible, as well as one more book of “early” origin which outlines how life “created in God’s image” should appear. Human society at this point has placed dogmatic importance on this book, because life has began to evolve in different ways. Plants, animals, and humans are born more and more with different mutations - it could be a little thing like an extra toe, or it could be more noticeable.
The result is a society which basically reflects 17th century Puritan New England, in which society has damned anything “Deviant,” or mutated, in a reflection of the Salem witch hunts. Deviant crops are burned, animals are slaughtered, and humans are cast out to fend for themselves in wild Fringe country.
This is the society into which our main character, David, is born. The reader follows his consciousness and his understanding about the world from the time he is a child, to the time he is a young adult, progressing from naivety to confusion, with little bursts of enlightenment here and there, ending in light of a new beginning. I like that as a reader, you must put the pieces together alongside the main character in order to form implications out of what is happening. David begins to form more ideas about the nature of humanity, of “truth,” and of God as he has more experiences with mutants, and as he eventually discovers that he possesses a unique mutation of his own…
The Chrysalids definitely explores the relationship between religion and science, and, discounting the importance of neither, the author certainly makes a statement about how that relationship affects humanity (when I say religion, I mean that he makes a statement about the institution of “the church” more than the state of “being religious”). Wyndham speaks as something of a pacifist through this novel, and touches on themes of both individuality and collectivism. Love, as being self-sacrificial, is another big theme.
I think that people from all walks of life are suitable audiences for the book — it’s a short, to-the-point, and captivating read, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in thinking about human nature, human relations, evolution, political theory, sociology, and history.
TEACHERS: THIS WOULD BE AN AWESOME BOOK FOR A HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH LITERATURE TEACHER TO INCORPORATE INTO THE CLASSROOM. In my opinion, it would be a SPLENDID follow-up book to The Crucible, and it would also be a good cross-disciplinary tool for connecting ideas in English Lit to ideas in Biology classes (genetics), History classes (what causes war, separation of church & state), or Social Studies (political theory in light of individualism vs. collectivism). The language is also appropriate for a high school audience. I wish I had been prompted to read more Sci-Fi in high school as part of assigned literature, and I think the fact that it wasn’t used more was a wasted opportunity for drawing connections to my science and history classes. The way that the book is paced is also perfect for teaching high-schoolers how to make their own predictions & inferences, and the plot and delivery offer opportunities for teaching critical thinking.
-Emily
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