Understanding the Chrysalids is like understanding what it is like for a minority group to get accepted by a larger group that represents the status quo. When David’s dad makes a remark about how it is evil to think of having an extra hand, we think of the fact that years ago people used to be the object of ridicule because they were not considered to be part of an original settling group.

Visual differences made acceptance even less accessible. To have an extra finger or toe must have been looked on as being very odd in the 1800’s because it was uncommon. People like Barnum traveled the world in search of human anomalies for his circus acts. Even today seeing a person with an extra digit is unusual but it should not characterize the person as being strange.

What is enjoyable about the book is that it can be considered to be an extension of what might happen if there was a nuclear catastrophe and how life might change. One sees how life gets simpler and that older dwellings were broken down and used to create homes that were more like community centers. This might very well be the scenario given the lack of proper building materials should an actual nuclear war occur.

The reader learns about how puritan David’s grandfather and father are and how his uncle would have him promise not to talk about the ability to communicate without talking. We learned about his friend’s mother who also asked him to promise not to talk about Sophie’s “mutated” feet. One gets the message that the boy is going to be more at odds with the traditional way of thinking that he inherited because of his acceptance of “mutated” people and how he can communicate differently with them.

Is David like any other normal boy wanting to know what the real difference is between being with someone who has an extra toe and who doesn’t? As his experiences with his world widen, he meets other humans like one from the Fringes who looked like his dad. But this person had long spindly legs, which was more visible than just seeing an extra toe. One wonders what David must think about his dad getting pale when spotting his double.

Would this have been a twin his who was separated from him when humans mutated and was then forced to live on the outskirts of their civilization? This is a question that one can ask when thinking about how people migrated in the story after a nuclear holocaust and one can only imagine that David knew very little about this. At the same time given the way he submits to his father’s ridicule, we can only guess that David is not going to suggest any relationship his family might have with “mutant” human who knew his father’s name.

All David knew was through his family; about the stories they passed down that people had somehow mutated and lived on the other bank. The bank symbolized then the margin of accepted human society in the future. As the story progresses the reader finds out about how David lives and how his world became a centre that would be used to combat the invasive forces of the people from the fringes.