The Chrysalids

In the night, several children tune in telepathically after they sense that David is distraught. When he explains the situation, they find it difficult to release what they have been taught about Deviations. When David finally falls asleep, he dreams of Sophie being sacrificed once more, and then dreams of the city for the first time in years. When he awakes, he finds his sister there to tend to him and spends his day lying on his stomach to allow his back to heal. He is visited by the inspector, who reveals that they know the last name of the family who escaped, and he continues pressing David for information. He lectures David about concealing Sophie, telling David that she is an imitation of a human. David protests, believing Sophie to be much the same as anyone else, but the inspector insists that the Devil sent her. Joseph walks in to announce that Sophie and her parents have been captured, and David cannot bear the pain of the news.

David confides in Uncle Axel that he wants to run away. His first idea is to escape to the Fringes, but Uncle Axel insists that is a terrible idea as they are always starving. When David asks about the world outside Labrador, Uncle Axel states that it is a godless place. David knows this is an unsatisfactory answer and asks for more information, and Uncle Axel gives in. He tells David that the world outside Waknuk is not only Badlands and Fringes; some books detail these things, though they are hard to find.

Sailors discover other lands and are told not to speak of them. There are islands north of Labrador, the endless sea to the east, and a large bay to the south, followed by endless Badlands. Within these Badlands are Deviations of all forms, including corn the size of trees, mushrooms as large as boulders, and vines hundreds of feet long. Uncle Axel describes it as “a kind of jungle of Deviations, going on for miles and miles” (59). He considers it a warning of what could happen in Waknuk if Offences went unchecked. Beyond this place is a black desert where nothing grows at all. When ships sail through, the barnacles drop off dead. One ship sailed too close once and saw old stone ruins, which suggests that people once lived there. The people on that ship soon wasted away from a mysterious illness. One account of this blackened place notes that it seems to be slowly becoming a more hospitable land, and it glows at night in some places.

Beyond the black place are uncivilized lands, where people allow Deviations to live ordinary lives. Some tribes believe their Deviations to be the true norm. There are people with pure white skin and hair, people with black skin, and people who speak all varieties of languages. One thing that all these cultures share is their stories of the Old People, who could apparently fly and communicate from great distances. Uncle Axel suggests that all these different people have their own idea of the true image, and it is impossible to know who is correct. The Bible gives no specific description, and Repentances was written after Tribulation by a man who could easily have been biased to his own form. David asks if there are any cities in the south, wondering if he dreamt of a real place, but Uncle Axel insists there are not.

He stresses the importance of knowing that there is no proof of God’s true image, and he notes that David’s ability to speak with others telepathically may be closer to the true image. There is no way of knowing. David confesses that there are eight other children with the same ability, but one disappeared suddenly a month ago. He asks Uncle Axel if he can find out more about what happened. When David looks back on this conversation later, he understands that Uncle Axel was trying to shield him from the horrific awakening that awaited him when he realized his ability was a Deviation.

David’s mother gives birth to a baby girl, but nobody speaks of the birth until the inspector certifies that the baby is human and “normal.” The day passes by with high anxiety, and the inspector finally arrives in the afternoon. He determines that the baby is “normal,” which is a relief as the past two births were not. The baby is named Petra, and David is then told he has a new sister to meet. In saying, “She did appear to be as normal as a newborn baby ever looks […]” (68), David foreshadows Petra’s abilities.

A few days after Petra is born, David’s Aunt Harriet shows up to visit. David overhears her and his mother talking, and Harriet reveals that her new baby, also born a few days ago, has a small “abnormality.” Emily is horrified to hear this and that Harriet brought what she considers a monster into her home. She is even more dismayed when Harriet asks if she can trade their babies for a few days to pass the inspection. Emily refuses, and Joseph soon walks in and is told everything. He becomes enraged and goes on for several minutes about purity, how Harriet has produced a Blasphemy, and how she further sinned by asking her sister to be involved. Harriet protests, stating that she does not believe God plans to cause his children to suffer. Joseph sends her away from the house, and Emily senses that Joseph has dark plans for Harriet. She tries to excuse her sister and begins to cry when she knows it is useless. The next day, Harriet is found dead in a river, and her baby is not mentioned at all.

Harriet is wiped from the minds of the Strorm family, but David cannot forget what she said and how she looked as she rode away. He dreams of her lying pale in the river, still holding her baby, and thinks about how such tiny imperfections can have such drastic consequences. Babies born with Deviations are referred to as Mutants, and they are thought to steer humanity away from God. David realizes that he, too, is a Deviation, and he prays to be “normal,” but it does nothing. He realizes that having a Deviation means he could be killed if he is found out, and he goes to Uncle Axel for advice.

He asks about the boy who died and finds out it was someone named Walter Brent, who was hit by a falling tree accidentally. Uncle Axel insists that David will be safe as long as he keeps his power a secret. He notes that people everywhere have experienced Deviation births (likely the result of radiation poisoning). Uncle Axel believes that it was not God who caused the apocalypse at all, but something more sinister, likely to do with decisions the Old People made. He wonders if these people are really something to admire or imitate at all.

Uncle Axel states that humans are made human by their minds, not their physical images. This separates them from other animals and distinguishes them as human. He believes that David’s ability to speak telepathically is a sign that the minds of humans are once again evolving. He believes it’s a gift from God and encourages David to utilize it as best he can without revealing it.

Later, David tunes in with the other telepaths and tells them what he learned about Walter. They decide to tell each other their names, and David finds out that they are children of varying ages in Waknuk: Michael, Anne, Mark, Sally, Katherine, Anne, and Rachel. When Michael starts attending school in a nearby district, he learns about new methods of doing things and facts about faraway places and points in history. He shares all he learns with the others, and they pass unnoticed for another six years until it is discovered that Petra holds the same capabilities.