Summary About the Chrysalids

The novel, through page one to ten could be thought of as made of mainly three parts. In the beginning, the first person character, 10-year-old David Strorm describes his lasting dream of a city full of buildings, streets and traffic. The place of his dream seemed very strange to him and his elder sister Mary warns him to never let anyone else know about his dream. The opening gives a feeling that the character lives in a culture where he needs to be very careful about revealing his feelings or thoughts.

In the second part, David Strorm describes an ordinary play trip he took that turned into an inordinary event. He met Sophie. Through trying to help free her injured foot stuck between stones, David witness that one of her feet had six toes, a secret that Sophie tried her best to hide from him. Later at Sophie’s home, her mother made David promise to keep it a secret.

In the last part, David describes his family and relatives, particularly his grandfather and his father, as well as his surroundings and the town of Waknuk. It turns out that his grandfather moved from the east to the edge of wilderness and founded the first town of Waknuk and later his father took over as the town’s leader. Both his grandfather and his father are very religious, especially his grandfather. They put strict rule on that everything should look “normal”. Anything that is out of ordinary would be quickly destroyed. When one day Davis casually said that he wished he could have a third hand, he greatly angered his father and that made him realize why Sophie and her family was trying to keep their secret.