Nothing Much

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The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

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Chapter I

1. What is the narrator's dream? Describe it, how it was different than the author's world, and why it helps establish the setting of the book.

He dreams of a modern city, complete with tall buildings, care, and aircraft. The author appears to live in a pre-industrial, agriculture based society that lacks the technology of the modern times. It sets the setting of the story in the future, yet in a state de-evolved from the present day.

2. Who does the author meet, and what does he discover about this person?

He meets Sophie, a girl his own age, and finds that she has six toes on each foot.

3. What promise does David make to his friend's mother? Why is this promise important? What are the consequences for breaking the promise?

He promises that he will keep secret that she has 6 toes on each foot. This promise is imperative because society is very strict about normality, and terrible things will happen to Sophie if anyone finds out.

4. What special ability do we learn that David has, and what are the circumstances under which the reader learns this? Why does this fact allow David to especially appreciate his promise?

David has telepathic ability, the ability to communicate with others by thought, not through normal communications. He can communicate through "thought shapes", and tries to do so with Sophie's mother but fails. Her mother has only a trace of this ability, and isn't aware of it. This abnormal ability David has places him in the same danger of Sophie of being rooted out and expelled or killed for being a "deviant".

5. What is this society afraid of? What do they believe is behind their fear? What is the religious basis of their fears, and the rules they have made to deal with them?

Society fears any deviation, fearing that the Devil creates human-like bodies in which to invade humanity and corrupt them, such as the Adam and Eve story, where Satan entered Eden in the form of a snake. The rationale is that Satan doesn't have the perfect power of God, so he can't make a human without some imperfection, or deviation. The people have taken literally the Genesis story, that describes how a person should look.

6. What doubts does David have about what he has learned about his friend, and how the laws of his society apply to this situation?

David understands the laws about deviance, but only from constant training. He cannot believe that Sophie a the Devil's creature, or that she is somehow "hateful in the sight of God".

Chapter II

1. What is the name of David's community? Who built it? What position does his family hold because of this?

Waknuk was built by Elias Strorm, who claims he left the east for its "ungodly ways". He started the community; therefore, David's father is the unofficial head of the community.

2. What are the two books that are left to form the society? What kind of society have they created? How does the characterization of David's grandfather demonstrate the author's point about this kind of living?

Only The Bible and a book called Nicholson's Repentences survived, causing the surviving society to be very fundamentally Christian, and very strict about Christian laws. Elias Strorm's very strict ways turned his beautiful wife into a withered, grey woman who was almost glad to die 1 year after David's father was born. (It is important to note that a similar situation occurs in Dickens' Dombey and Son, where Mrs. Dombey almost gladly dies after the birth of Paul Jr., having a most strict and single-minded husband.) The author is explaining that such a society stifles life.

3. Who were the Old People, and what were they like? What can you extrapolate (guess) about what happened to the Old People, and how is this relevant to our society now?

The Old People were our modern day society, and they had our technology, myths of which amaze David's society, who believe that the Old People were almost god-like but somehow were lost. (This is much like the Romantic Era notion of the "Golden Age", where people were blissful and nearly perfect, soon after the Fall of Man. These golden people just disappeared in Romantic myth.) Clues in the story suggest that the Old People destroyed themselves in a nuclear holocaust, which was a serious threat to humankind in the sixties, when this book was written.

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