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Waknuk In John Wyndham's The Chrysalids

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Waknuk, a community built on mutual respect for God. In John Wyndham’s classic novel The Chrysalids, this is all the people know. However, the community of Waknuk was built on another pillar, much darker than respect: fear. However, as a community built upon this fear, Waknuk will never be able to attain the True Image. Not only are the people of Waknuk subpar at detecting some deviations, meaning they could have seeped into society, but the True Image is little more than a guess made by Waknuk scholars. Finally, attaining absolute perfection will be physically impossible due to the power of Tribulation, something Joseph Strorm and his following are too naive to comprehend.
The people of Waknuk may fear the Devil, but are sometimes unable to notice the imitations it sends to taunt humanity. The thought-shape children are a prime example of this. Though they seemed to pass their initial inspections with flying colours, earning them a certificate of normalcy, they later began to exhibit traits that went against the image of God. Though their certificate could have been revoked, it would likely cause problems among the population, because “to declare …show more content…

However, the greatest pillar on which Waknuk is built is fear itself, and as a result, Waknuk will remain forever too ignorant to truly attain the True Image. Not only do the people of Waknuk possess little more than a guess as to what the Norm is, but the district’s inspection process fails to adequately screen some deviations. Not as though it would matter, because even after achieving perfection, the people of Waknuk would be one generation away from losing it as a result of the biological contaminants brought forth by Tribulation. This is the ignorance David sees, an ignorance distorted by the lens of fear: fear of God, fear of the Devil, and fear of the imitations with which it taunts

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