The uncontrollable driven state of fear gives humans the power to destroy. In “The Chrysalids”, people start to fear others because of their difference in appearance. Likewise, people also fear those that have differences in moral beliefs and values. Demonstrated in both “The Chrysalids” and African American Slavery, the power of fear within humans gives humans the power to discriminate those that are different. By examining discrimination with differences in appearance, differences in humans beliefs/values and death, it will be apparent that when humans are interconnected with fear, humans will start to discriminate all those that are different.
Humans discriminate and fear other humans with differences in appearance. In the novel “The Chrysalids”, the citizens of Waknuk believed that everyone living within their region was the true image of God. On the contrary, the people of Waknuk believe deviations are an insult to the true image of God and are creatures sent by the devil. WHen David met Sophie, he noticed that she was a deviation with six toes instead of a normal five toes. Sophie’s parents are very protective of her deviation and soon noticed that Sophie’s new friend knows about her secret. Sophie’s parents say to David “Nobody else must know abou that. You are the only person who does, except her father and me. Nobody else must know. Nobody at all – not ever…” (Wyndham 12).
In this quote, it reveals the society of Waknuk is very unkind towards deviations, and if anyone in Waknuk finds out, she is badly discriminated. Similarly, African American people were considered a threat in USA because of their skin color, just as deviations were considered a threat to God in Waknuk. African Americans would get banished of their humanitarian rights at work, in school, in the outdoors, in sports, and anywhere else because of the difference in skin color. In addition, the African Americans were known as slaves to the white people, doing tiring jobs for very little pay, very little food, and very low quality of life. As a result, many African Americans were discriminated during this historical period of time, simply becuase people feared the African Americans of how they look. Therefore, people are unkind to those that do not posses the same appearance.
A disagreement bewteen humans beliefs and values causes discrimination bewteen individuals. In the novel “The Chrysalids”, the citizens of Waknuk believe that everyone living within their community is the true image of GOd. Still the people of Waknuk would punish anyone who alters the image of God in the Waknukian community. For instance, Joseph Storm was durious at David because of his dissatisfaction with the form of the body God gave him, “Were you, or were you not, expressing dissatisfaction with the form of the body GOd gave you – the form in His own image…? You blasphemed boy. You found fault with the Norm. Everybody here heard you. What have you to say to that…?” (Wyhndham 27).
David is put in a situation where his father is very cruel upon him because he has a different belief of the image of God. Similarly, the white people believed that African Americans will always be treated at a lower standard than white people because of their skin tone. The African Americans believe that everyone should be treated equally with respect. As a result, becuase of a disagreement, the African Americans were the ones who continuously fought for their rights and got their humans rights taken away. Therefore, cruelty generates from differences in humans beliefs and values.
Death arises when people fight for their beliefs in human values and appearance. In the novel “The Chrysalids”, the telepaths have different humans values than those of the norm. Alan, the boyfriend of a telepath, was killed by Uncle Axel to keep their identity as a telepathic group safe. Uncle Axel said “all the same, it had to be done and quickly. ALan wasn’t a fool. He’d see to it that he was covered. Before he actually began on you he’d have had a written desposition somewhere to be opened in the event of his death. It’d had been a pretty nasty situation for all of you…” (Wyndham 119).
Death takes the life of ALan to protect their identity of different humans values from the Waknukians. Similarly in salvery, thousands of African Americans fought for their humans rights against the racial discrimination from the white people. As a result, death and violence arose bewteen the African Americans and the Whites because the African Americans would continuously fight for their rights in the nation. Therefore, death takes away lives when people are at conflict with humans values and beliefs.
In conclusion, the power of fear within humans gives humans the opportunity to discriminate those that are different. Difference in huamsn appearances brings fear among those of a different group. Simiarly, humans also fear others due to their difference in humans values and religious beliefs. As a result, an uncontrollable driven state of fear leads to death. The power of fear is the power to destroy!