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Jackie Wintermeyer

Ms. Button
ENG 3U
December 2, 2014
What Makes Someone a Good Person?
The difference between right and wrong is often decided by the beliefs of a certain religion.
The Chrysalids is a story, taking place after a nuclear war, about a surviving civilizations’ journey to remain in the image of God. Simply being religious does not make someone a good person as religion can control one’s life, often leading to closed­mindedness. To begin with, Joseph Strorm is highly religious, which causes him to spend most of his time and energy trying to keep his town clear of offences. In second place, once Alan Ervin learns that a person is a blasphemy, he will never view them as more than deviants. Lasty, Old Jacob blames the deviants for Waknuk’s problems. To begin with, Joseph Strorm’s religion causes him to be highly closed­minded.
Firstly, Joseph’s reaction when David, his son, gets a splinter and jokes about it being easier if he had another arm, shows that Joseph will be just as strict and closed­minded with his own family. Joseph, dumbfounded and awestructly says, “my own son.. calling upon the Devil…” (Wyndham 26). Joseph is so blinded by his religion, he is willing to beat his son in hopes that David will no longer be, in Joseph’s opinion, so unappreciative of being the true image. Secondly, when Joseph sees the inspector not doing anything about Angus Morton’s vast horses, he becomes enraged. Joseph

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claims that “God never made horses the size of these” (Wyndham 36). This is a perfect example of Joseph’s closed­mindedness as God has, in fact, made horses like those; modern day Clydesdale horses. Thirdly, the way Joseph treated Aunt Harriet when she came begging for help to conceal her deviant child, was proof of his closed­mindedness. Joseph looked at Harriet as though she was a criminal, and not a mother who is trying to save her child. While yelling at Harriet, Joseph says “You have sinned, woman…”, simply for producing a child who is, supposedly, not of the norm
(Wyndham 72). In summary, Joseph Strorm is closed­minded due to his religion because of his reaction to David’s joke, his behaviour when he sees the large horses, and his treatment of Aunt Harriet.
Next, Alan Ervin is closed­minded due to his religion. First of all, Alan had walked in on David and Sophie playing in a pond, and after he saw Sophie’s we footprint on a rock, Alan went to report her. Alan told David, “I’ll soon find out, anyway”, which implies that he was intending to get her captured, even though she was just an innocent little girl (Wyndham 44). Next, when Alan was older, and married to Anne, he had managed to get out of her that she was telepathic, and who else was as well. David’s uncle Axel had seen Alan looking at Rachel, Rosalind, David, and Petra at church one sunday, and said the look “On his face while he studied… the four of you” was a look that meant he knew everything, and was planning to use it against them (Wyndham 118). Lastly, Alan had made a plan that would let the inspector know everything Alan knew, even in the case of his death. Uncle Axel knew that “He’d see to it that he was covered”, so Axel got rid of Alan before he was a bigger threat (Wyndham 118). In conclusion, Alan was

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closed­minded due to his religion as he does not give Sophie a chance, could only see
David, Rosalind, Petra, and Rachel as nothing nothing more than deviants, and that he would have done anything necessary to turn in the telepaths.
Lastly, Old Jacob’s religion causes him to be closed­minded. First, one of the farmers in Waknuk, Old Jacob, is disgruntled by people interfering with the field burnings. He believes people should burn the crops that deviant so people can “ get on with [their] own work” (Wyndham 87). Second, Jacob believes that the deviants have earned the treatment they are receiving by not being of the true image. He