The importance of relationships consists of disagreements, respect, common interests and also their opinions. The Waknuk community all can relate to each other because they all follow the same religion, the “True Image” or the “Nicholas Repentances”. In the Strorm family they all have different opinions, religious views. David and the telepaths all need to stick together because they all share the same secret. In the novel The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, the theme Relationships, relationships are very evident in people’s life’s, it creates the way people communicate, and who they communicate with.
In Waknuk people with deviations are not accepted. People who live in Waknuk who have deviations need to contain there deviations in order to contain their relationships with others. When Alan a boy who lives in Waknuk found out about Sophie’s six toes, David got punished by his father for knowing and continuing to see her. Everyone in Waknuk follows the same religion. (The Definition of Man) ‘…and each leg shall be jointed twice and have one foot, and each foot five toes and each toe shall end with a flat nail…’ (13). The relationship between Waknuk and the Fringes is very gruesome, they have very much different opinions.
When the Fringes came an invaded Waknuk they came to take props and food because they don’t have as much as them, they are not treated the same. The Waknuk community has difficulty acknowledging people who are different. The Storm family is over powered by Joseph Strorm, David’s father. Joseph has a big impact on their family. Joseph gets extremely angry when people talk about Blasphemy/Deviations. When David said that it would be a lot easier if he had another hand his father freaked, because he thought David was wishing for another hand.
This makes David feel not very accepted because of his own abnormal abilities. In the Strorm family Petra is the center of attention, she is the favourite. In the book the Chrysalids David says “I loved her- everybody, even my father, conspired, to spoil her, with an endearing lack of success (83). Aunt Harriet is treated different than the rest of the family; she cannot produce “normal” babies. Aunt Harriet went to the Strorm house and asked Emily Strorm, Davids mom to switch babies for when the inspector comes. Emily was shocked at this favour.
Joseph came home and heard what was going on and was furious, he told her to get out and he said “accursed is the mutant in the sight of God and Man” (76). Joseph Strorm had a lot of power and control over the Strorm family. David and Rosalind control the way the group connects with eachother. David and Rosalind are the main characters out of the telepath group. They make most of the decisions. David awoke suddenly from a signal telling him that some of the group members have been captured, immediately he wakes Petra and they meet up with Rosalind, and flee to the Fringes.
When Anne and Alan got married the group didn’t support her because their secret could get out. When Anne told the telepaths she was getting married they found it very difficult to believe that she was serious. The group tried reaching out to her but she simply blocked them out. In a result Alan was murdered. When decisions are made they affect relationships. Anne hung herself because Alan was killed and she believed it was the telepaths who did it. In the book Anne left a note, and in it, it releases who they really are even Rachel, Anne’s sister.
Also in it she accuses them of collectively planning Alan’s murder. It was very important for all the telepaths to stick together, Rosalind and David understood this, therefore they controlled the group’s decisions. The importance of characters and their relationships consists of disagreements, reverence, common interests and their opinions. The Waknuk community had battles against the Fringes creating conflict. David Strorm was a great believer in religion. In the end he picked what he believed in over the relationship with his family. David and the telepaths all support the same thing and all stayed together.
