The novel “The Chrysalids”, known in the USA as “Re-Birth”, by John Wyndham was published for the first time in 1955.
David Strom learned very well the religion lessons that his father, the preacher from the village of Waknuk, gave him. This means that he’s perfectly familiar with the Definition, which establishes the characteristics of a human being. However, when he discovers that Sophie, a little girl from a nearby community, has six toes, he doesn’t think she’s a sacrilegious mutant. When Sophie’s mutation is discovered, adults don’t react with David’s levity.
Over the years, David develops telepathic abilities that allow him to communicate with other young people in the area with similar power. Sophie’s story taught him the hard way that any out-of-the-ordinary traits that could be considered a mutation must be kept secret and the other Telepaths agree with him. The birth of his sister Petra, who starts manifesting very soon extremely powerful telepathic powers that allow her to contact people at a far greater distance, changes their situation.
John Wyndham was an author who used elements that were already traditional from catastrophic stories in updated works with themes that were new, deriving from the development of science fiction. He tended to set his stories in his present or in the near future, instead “The Chrysalids” is set in a future that’s indefinite several generations after the Tribulation, as the destruction of the civilization of the Old People is called. The characters have very vague information about that ancient civilization but from various details, it’s clear that there was an atomic war that brought the survivors back to barbarism at a more or less medieval level.
The community in which David Strom lives is marked by religious fundamentalism that unites the Bible with xenophobia. Mutants are hated and, when discovered, get sterilized and exiled to the Badlands. At the beginning of the novel, David is only 10 and his father’s teachings he memorized are just words because he can’t think that Sophie might have anything evil just because she has six toes.
David’s childhood candor turns into reflections as he grows up and there’s a leap forward in time to his teen years. It’s a time when he has developed telepathic abilities, so the risks of being recognized as a mutant become a very real problem. Action is limited throughout the story, more focused on introspection and reflections on issues such as intolerance.
“The Chrysalids” is in some ways very different from the typical John Wyndham novels but it’s not the only one in which there’s a static society that can be upset by a change. In this case, it’s about the post-apocalyptic society in which religious fundamentalism tries to eliminate any mutation but change is part of life. Telepaths are more frightening than other mutants because their diversity is not visible.
John Wyndham was a writer who managed to develop his novels’ themes in a sophisticated way even if they were short by today’s standards. In “The Chrysalids” there are differences of interpretation of the religious teachings and different ideas don’t exist only among the mutants. In the end, the reader is left with reflections on normality and change in complex situations where acceptance would be ideal but the fight for survival may be necessary.
John Wyndham’s skill makes decades-old works still “fresh” in the development of their themes even when they tell a type of story that is considered dated. Some people consider “The Chrysalids” the best novel by this author. Personally, I prefer “The Day of the Triffids” but I think they’re both classics you still must read.
