ENG-2D1
November 30, 2010
Contrasting Setting in “The Chrysalids”
There are a lot of towns in the world, and none of them are completely the same. The novel “The Chrysalids” by John Wyndham, there are a few towns that are extremely different from each other. Firstly, they are both at very different stages of development. They are also placed in slightly different places geographically. Lastly, they have completely different people living in each town. The people of Waknuk are not at all the same and have different views on almost everything. Waknuk and the Fringes from the novel “The Chrysalids” have very different and almost opposite settings.
Waknuk is at a greatly different stage of development than the Fringes. For instance, in Waknuk, they have crops and live stock, therefore have plenty of food. On the other hand, it is an everyday struggle for the people in the Fringes to get enough food to survive. “Why they’ve got nothing there-not even enough food” (Wyndham 56). Waknuk is also very civilized and has a lot of buildings, and the Fringes have almost nothing, only some shacks. “…large creatures penetrated as far into civilized parts of Waknuk” (15). The Fringes is a place where the people of Waknuk get sent if they have a mutation of some sort. You would not want to go to a place like that because there is no food and only people with deviations there. A good quote from the novel that demonstrates how terrible the Fringes are is “Man alive, you’d not want to go to the Fringes” (56)
The residents of Waknuk are nearly opposites to the people of the Fringes. The people in the town of Waknuk are very judgmental and don’t respect anything or anyone that is different. As an opposite, the Fringes are full of different people and are very excepting to everyone. “People in our district had a very sharp eye for the odd, or the unusual…” (5). In both towns, the residents are also different because of their life style and how they live. In the Waknuk...