The mirroring effect of discrimination in The Chrysalids and today’s society
In the words of Bayard Rustin, he points out: “If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end”, this quote from Bayard Rustin, is what the society in The Chrysalids and modern society needs to know.The author of The Chrysalids, John Wyndham, uses the novel as a mouthpiece to convey that many faults in David’s society relates to this society. In modern society, discrimination is tied with and shares
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In addition to this concern, Aunt Harriot, David’s aunt, is so aggrieved from the discrimination of her deviation newborn child, as a result, she commits suicide. Aunt Harriot speaks as if she has been slapped, “Monster! Oh! Oh! Oh!... She broke into little moanings” (70). However, when Aunt Harriot says, “But I didn’t, because I thought perhaps I could save her somehow. I love her. She’s a lovely baby- except for that. She is, isn’t she?” (70), it is clear how hurt Aunt Harriot is when David’s mother calls her baby a monster, but despite having a deviation, Aunt Harriot loves her baby. Because of this pain and love for her child, Aunt Harriot commits suicide to protect her baby. It can be seen from the analysis above how discrimination in The Chrysalids relates to society today. In today’s society, people are discriminated for their race, gender, age, background, and even their likes or dislikes. As a result of this, the victim feels deep emotional pain. They even go through physical harassment because of having the smallest of differences from everyone else. For example, a teenager who is African-American is discriminated for having a different skin colour than the others. Thus, discrimination is one the …show more content…
These wooden panels and the environment that David lives, including his pious household, affects David’s personality and the way he grows up. It causes David to think deviations don’t belong in the world and that the Norms are perfect and blessed. David prays, “Oh God, please, please God, let me be like other people. I do not want be different. [Will] you make it so that when I wake up in the morning I will be just like everyone else, please, God, please!” (76), after Aunt Harriot commits suicide. This quote is significant because it shows that after Aunt Harriot’s deviational child is discriminated, David thinks of himself as a deviation for having his telepathic ability and this makes him insecure about himself for having something that others do not have. Evidently, in today’s society, discrimination is also most likely to affect behaviour, personality and more. An example of discrimination affecting behaviour is by changing someone who is joyful and always surrounded by people, to someone who is depressed and alone. Therefore, discrimination in this society lowers self-esteem, self-image and confidence, affecting the victim in every way. These two societies mirror each other because just like David’s society and modern society, discrimination affects behaviour,
Society in “The House of The Scorpion” and our own society is strikingly similar in many ways. Some of these ways include how in both societies people get discriminated, money influences and corrupts people and also how power corrupts people. However our society just like a person’s personality, has the potential to change itself and become different.
David was a young boy who got beaten everyday. He was very skinny, bony, and was beaten everyday. David wore threadbare clothing, he looked as if he hadn't changed or washed his clothes in months. This was the truth, his mother starved him and abused him. She never washed his clothes to embarrass him. This worked at first when people started making fun of him, but David got used to it. Bullies started beating the scrawny boy up everyday, it became a routine, but he was so frail and weak from being starved he couldn?t fight back. David looked muddled, he had a very terrible physical journey that made him mentally stronger.
Despair is evident throughout the book, more so from Waknuk citizens oppressing those who are different. “Katherine, a girl from a neighboring farm who could produce thought shapes similar to David’s was found out and taken to the inspector, where, she was ”broken”. Sally, who was also taken with Katherine to the inspector, said to the rest of the thought shapers, “They’ve broken Katherine…Oh Katherine darling… [t]hey’re torturing her…She’s all clouded now. She can’t hear us.” Her thoughts dissolved into shapeless distress.” (Wyndham 130). Clearly Katherine had been severely hurt enough to reveal her ability of producing thought shapes which would put all the thought shapers in danger and tortured enough that Sally sends distress showing how hopeless they indeed are. Furthermore when David found out his father was apart of the party coming to battle the Fringe people he is in sheer distress. He states, “ ‘Purity…’I said. ‘The will of the Lord. Honor thy father…Am I supposed to forgive him! Or try to kill him?’” (182). David is conflicted and rather flustered between his respect and love for his father yet as a deviant they are fighting for different sides and he knows either he or his father will die in the end. Additionally, during the battle itself, one of David’s most loyal friends parishes before his eyes. D...
Change, the essential of life, it can be tranquility or turbulence, change has no set goal, it occurs all around us without us knowing. In the novel, The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham, change is the major problem in the society even though it is hidden in different aspects of life. To the society, change is their enemy, but it is themselves who are their enemies without knowing it. A society that fails to realize the inevitability of change will indubitably agonize.
Today’s society is accepting of differences, where as in the Chrysalids if you had any type of difference that was visible, you didn’t get a certificate, you were sterilized and sent to the fringes. Conformity was the only way of having control over the people of the Waknuck society and they didn’t want mutants or deviations to take over. Another story about mutants is portrayed in the movie X-Men First Class, all the normal people are afraid of them. They are afraid because of what they can and could possible do and they had no way of controlling them without making them come out of hiding. They would have to tell the government what they could do and the government would then decide whether or not they were too dangerous for the public. The Waknuck society was not into have individualism, just like in the Hunger Games. In the movie people were separated into districts and every year to remind them of why they were separated, they have one male and one female from each district between the ages 12-18 as tributes. This happens because of the rebellion Seventy-four years before and every year all twenty-four tributes are to fight to the death until one lone victor remains. In the Chrysalids they are to keep to their jobs in their district and to report any deviants. They control conformity through and by historical beliefs, for example the only two book’s left from the “Old People” were the revised Bible to tell them what the true image really is and the book Repentances. Furthermore the Chrysalids is about how conformity after devastation may not be the greatest idea.
She stopped letting me sleep on the bottom bunk; she began to tease me about my fears.” (Evans 46). As 9 years old child, Allison is annoyed of Tara because she’s being tedious. Allison’s act might be seen as siding with her grandmother, and this directly explains that Tara went through the suffering alone, without anyone supporting her. This might be the reason why in the end, Tara decided to jumped off the tree, because she felt tortured and pressured badly by everyone surround her, and no one ever pay attention to her. Her best friend who she had always spent time with, giving her back to her, and stressed her to the point that she dare to jump. Somehow, we encounter these kind of situations in real life, and Evans are trying to make readers realize such tragedy really did happened in our surroundings. Frustration due to racial discrimination actually happens commonly. Those kinds of mistreatment that one’s receiving due to differences in race or culture indirectly affect his or her mentality and their character development. Evans wants the readers realize that such offensive behavior we frequently do – whether it is intentional or not intentional – affect other person’s psychological state. Readers ought to be aware of any shape of discrimination among our society and to select suitable actions when binding relationship with people from other
In conclusion, readers identify with the human form and use it as a vehicle for defamiliarization to show the mechanical functions they serve themselves and others. The characters in “Bloodchild” behave as part of a process and show a lack of respect for their human qualities. As they desensitize their bodies, they allow the Tlic to engage with them in an unbalanced power relationship. Then, the Tlic interact with them in a sheltering way and inhibit their thought process. Through this interaction chain, Butler effectively conveys that the way humans treat themselves will dictate how others treat them. As the afterword said, “Bloodchild” is not about slavery; it’s about the relationships humans take on because they allow themselves to be
Parents had to raise their children knowing there children would suffer the same fate as they did when they become of age. “Grandma was soon to lose another object of affection, she had lost many before.” (pg. 39) When the kids were young they were allowed to develop friendships with the slave owner’s children. “Color makes no difference with a child.” (pg.50) Kids are oblivious. However, slave children began to realize what the rest of their life would be like when they did become of age. Sopia the slave o...
He tries to explain that in order to be happy, one must put himself in other people's shoes, to know that there is another world that you must enter that revolves around another individual. A person must learn that he must look at both sides of the road before crossing the road of judgment. Meaning that a person must think twice before judging someone due to the fact that you are incapable off reading other people's minds thus you cannot make a judgment about how tough their lives are and the daily hardships that they have to put up with. Before you start complaining about how long the line at the store is, realise that you are not the only person waiting in line and that there are other people waiting in line too just like you are. David uses plenty of metaphors and examples in order to further explain to the audience his statement. One example he uses in the beginning of the story is the fish example, where two young fish meet an older fish who asks them "how is the water", the two young fish then go on to reply by saying "what the hell is water?". After reading through the story, one realises that what the author means by 'water' is that in this scene, water is the representation of life. Thus you can think of it as the older fish asking the
The society in question is refuses to reciprocate the equality envisioned by the narrator and without any intention of compliance continually uses this man to their own advantage. It is not only this exploitation, b...
I was in complete and utter shock when I began to read Disposable People. The heart-wrenching tale of Seba, a newly freed slave, shook my understanding of people in today’s society, as well as their interactions with each other. I sat in silence as I read Seba’s story. “There they [Seba’s French mistress and husband] stripped me naked, tied my hands behind my back, and began to whip me with a wire attached to a broomstick (Bales 2).” I tried to grasp the magnitude of the situation.
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
In relation to the novel, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass’s disobedience ultimately sparked his freedom. Being introduced to the “heart-rending shrieks” from his aunt at such a young age, slavery implanted a long-lasting effect on his life. Often times, when one experiences a painful memory in the manner such as watching a family member hit until they are covered with blood, sparks a fire to stand up for what is right in the back of their mind. Douglass carried those visions of his aunt along with him his whole life, as well as his own repulsive
David was known to dangerous jobs because of his strength. On one particular occasion he was fixing a barn, and he happened to fall from a great height and at first was proclaimed unhurt.3 For several days, he had a headache which progressively got worse and those several days turned into weeks. Soon he was diagnosed with a fever by a doctor and the only way to cure him was if blood was drawn. This affected Clara greatly because from a young age she had formed a very strong and unbreakable bond with her brother.3 This bond enabled her to remain by her brothers side day and night, and she “learned to take all directions for his medicines from his physician (who had eminent counsel) and to administer them like a genuine nurse.”3 She took care of him for two years until he was sent to a doctor for treatment. During this particular incident, was when she willingly let go of her own needs to meet her brothers needs.3 Caring for her brother gave Clara a purpose and after he was healed “instead of feeling that my freedom gave me time for recreation or play, it seemed to me like time wasted, and I looked anxiously about for some useful occupation”3 this what helped her come to the conclusion that helping others helped her get rid of the shy and timid nature that had held her back for so long. Her shy and timid nature was caused by a speech impediment she had known as a lisp. Her lisp caused her to feel self-conscious and insecure disabling her from talking to people but with the help of her family Clara was able to overcome it. In an attempt to help Clara overcome her fear, her parents sent her to a boarding school, believing that Clara would lose her timid characteristic if thrown amidst strangers.3 After Clara was sent home for not eating was when she realized the importance of overcoming her timid nature as
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary