The Chrysalids: Purity of Form
John Wyndham‘s 1955 novel The Chrysalids tells the story of a post-nuclear holocaust frontier society (the town of Waknuk) that has become fixated on phenotypic purity (the appearance of an organism), as a proxy for genetic purity.
The difference between the visible phenotype, the outward expression of the sum of the genotype, and the genotype itself (as encoded in the DNA sequence and epigenetic modifications associated with the genome), which is hidden (in the absence of detailed genetic or molecular analysis) is the crux about which the novel turns.
The birth defect polydactyly can result in extra fingers or toes. Postaxial polydactyly can lead to the formation of a fully developed extra little finger (as shown on this cover).
Very high radiation levels in the aftermath of a devastating global nuclear war, believed to be a “Tribulation” sent by God, have had a profound effect on the surviving plants, animals, and humans. Mutation rates are very high, resulting in a high frequency of grossly mutant forms, most especially in regions near the centers of devastation, mainly cities in the Northern Hemisphere.
The remnants of human society that are the book's focus survive in a region (of Labrador, Canada) where radiation levels are not lethal to life, but still result in the regular occurrence of mutations, which are seen by the small frontier community Wyndham focuses on as part of the punishment from God, and which must be weeded out, to avoid a second Tribulation.
As the vast majority of mutations in biology are necessarily detrimental, this society has become obsessed with the purity of biological form. This obsession, on the surface, is not an unreasonable response to the disturbing plasticity of the plants and animals that populate this small community.
Polydactyly is associated with almost 40 genetic mutations in humans, at a frequency of 1 in 1,339 births in Caucasians, and 1 in 143 live births in Africans.
Because of their mostly detrimental nature, mutations would, in the main, be a drain on the productivity of livestock and crops, reducing yields and potentially imperiling maintenance of the lines of domesticated species. However, humans come under the same law, and if deemed mutants, are either killed or sterilized and banished to the Fringes, a lawless and primitive wilderness on the edges of the remnants of the highly irradiated areas populated by mutants, some of them banished.
Occasional beneficial mutations are regarded with ambivalence by a distant central government, being valued for their potential usefulness, but being abhorred by the fundamentalists in Waknuk.
We first meet David, the narrator of the story and one of the residents of Waknuk, when he’s a young boy, perhaps 11 or 12 years old. David appears to be phenotypically normal, in that he conforms to the stereotypical outward form of a young human male. However, he is, in fact, a telepath, as are a number of his friends in the frontier settlement.
Wyndham’s telepathy in The Chrysalids is not a form of mind-reading. David cannot perceive the thoughts of the other many non-telepaths around him. Their minds are a blank, closed to him. It is only those others who also have this new mode of perception with whom he can communicate.
The hands are more commonly involved than the feet. Mutations in homeobox genes can give rise to extra digits.
We are to presume that this telepathy, which is distance limited, has arisen by mutation. But whether it has or hasn’t is a moot point. The danger they face is simply of being different, and outside the envelope of accepted human norms, at least in the community they live in, because of the hardline eugenics code that has of necessity arisen.
The little group intuitively understands the danger of being identified as mutants if they reveal their telepathic abilities and they endeavor to operate in secret. However, one of David’s uncle’s is able to infer David's telepathic abilities and learns of the group. Luckily, he is sympathetic to their cause and aids them in their subterfuge.
The book provides a convincing portrayal of the ultra-conservative society of the frontier settlement of Waknuk and the religious fanatics who monitor and police the correctness of biological form. David’s father is one of the most strict, living by a ruthless eugenics code, particularly with respect to humans and what is considered God’s true image of Man.
Of course, the little group of telepaths, for all their care not to reveal their abilities, come under suspicion, through the agency of the development of extraordinary and uncontrolled telepathic powers in David’s younger sister. Finally, the little groups are revealed for what they are, with two of their number being tortured into admission. This results in a desperate fight into the Fringes in an attempt to escape the zealous lynch mob, leading to a final confrontation that has been criticized as something of a deus ex machina contrivance.
The Chrysalids was titled Re-birth in the USA. I am surprised Wyndham tolerated this literary mutilation.
Is this a fair criticism?
The ending certainly did not diminish my 11-year-old self’s enjoyment of the book.
However, as an adult reader, I can see how the ending of the book might be construed as contrived, with the little band of fleeing telepaths seemingly trapped in a dead end with no apparent way out facing a fight they cannot win. And then, voila, their savior arrives on a winged chariot, so to speak, and hoiks them out of the frying pan and the fire.
In Wyndham’s defense, he does go to some lengths to foreshadow the ending, right from the very beginning of the book, sign-posting what is to come at intervals throughout the story, and so the resolution doesn’t spring entirely out of nowhere.
Still, the fleeing telepaths ultimately do not have to fight for their freedom themselves.
Oddly, this ending in some way mirrors David's character throughout the novel. As the narrator, David is more of an observer and a thinker, and not a doer. At critical moments in the plot, the action occurs off stage and is carried out by others — the sympathetic, non-telepathic uncle, one of David’s telepathic colleagues, an old friend, deemed a mutate and consigned to the Fringes.
Deus ex machina — 'God from the machine' — function to resolve a knot in the plot.
David’s reporting of action at a distance does dampen the immediate tension of the narrative, however, it does not detract from the sense of threat and suspense the plot maintains throughout the novel.
This sense of powerlessness David and his telepathic friends experience does make them seem particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the draconian, viciously paternalistic society they are brought up in. Perhaps being true to their powerlessness forced the deus ex machina ending on Wyndham.
Certainly, Wyndham‘s characters always seem carefully drawn from life, their believability being one of the features of his writing that gives his books their longevity.
As a postscript, I note that the novel was important in shaping my nascent interest in science fiction, it being required reading in an English class at school I should also add that at that young age I was so powerfully drawn into the story that I remember wondering if other people were telepathic and I, being unable to communicate in this way, was the odd one out and no one was telling me.