Assignment Four: Finding the beginning of your story

Story analyzed: The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

Valorie Lennox

Level: Beginner

David Strorm is different. He can exchange thoughts with others who share his difference. But David lives in a society where deviation from the norm is punished by forced sterilization and banishment to a inhospitable wilderness called the Fringes.

The opening sentence in the Chrysalids reflects what is different about David: When I was quite small I would sometimes dream of a city which was strange because it began before I even knew what a city was. A few sentences later Wyndham gives the reader the first clue that David's difference could be dangerous. When David mentions his dream to his elder sister, she warns him not to talk about. Other people, as far as she knew, did not have such pictures in their heads, either sleeping or waking, so it would be unwise to mention them.

Both the mystery of why David would dream of a city and the threat represented by his dream are immediately established. The city is significant. It is David's difference which allows him to dream of the city and it is the city which will eventually rescue him from the consequences of his deviation.

The story is told in first person, with David as the narrator, starting with his childhood dream. As David's younger self learns about his world, so does the reader.

"People in our district had a very sharp eye for the odd, or the unusual, so that even my left-handedness caused slight disapproval," David notes before admitting the "curious understanding" he had with his half-cousin Rosalind. Rosalind can also exchange thoughts.

The first incident in the novel underlines the risk of deviation. David meets another child, Sophie, who has an extra toe on each foot. This physical difference is enough to condemn Sophie as non-human and to banish her to the wilderness. David is caught up in an unsuccessful attempt to protect Sophie, one of several incidents which make him aware of the deadly consequences of deviating from the norm.

He again dreams of the city after he learns Sophie and her family are captured, perhaps because he wants to run away but knows of no place to go.

The stakes mount incident by incident as David's experience expands. Recognizing the danger in any deviation, he prays to have his special ability removed. Not only does the ability remain but David's toddler sister, Petra, also demonstrates the same ability enhanced by extra range and power.

Eventually some of those able to exchange thoughts are discovered by the authorities. David, Rosalind and Petra are warned through thought-messages just in time. They flee to the Fringes to escape being captured.

Rescue comes from the source mentioned in the opening sentence of the novel, the city of David's dream which is inhabited by others able to share thoughts.

Much later the images David recalls as a dream are revealed to be the thoughts of those who live in that city, which is located halfway around the world. Eventually David

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