Time and Progress Theme Analysis

The title of Wyndham’s book introduces time as an important theme in the novel because the word “chrysalid” implies a specific sense of time. The word can either mean “a shell that has been discarded” or “a preparatory or transitional state”—it is either something in the past or something preparing for the future. Because Wyndham never uses the word anywhere in the text of the novel, however, it is not clear precisely to what or whom “the chrysalids” refers.

In Waknuk, people believe that time progresses in a linear fashion toward a better and more moral future. The Waknukians’ goal is to rebuild the society that was lost in the Tribulation and live according to God’s Word by ridding society of any mutations. The forward motion of time is very important to the Waknukians, and only those who align with the Definition are allowed to contribute to this progression. Reproduction is encouraged and valued among those who fit the Definition, while those deemed Blasphemies are sterilized before being cast out into the Fringes. The people in the Fringes, on the other hand, as well as those from Zealand, believe in a more cyclical version of time in which history constantly repeats itself. People from both places believe that “life is change,” and they are not nearly as concerned with moving forward down a direct path to perfection.

The Chrysalids calls into question the idea that society can be manipulated into moving in a certain direction. Instead, it suggests, or perhaps even warms, that history repeats itself. Indeed, although the Waknukians conceive of time as moving forward, they want to move forward by replicating the past. The title, then, expresses the repetitive and cyclical nature of time through its two definitions. If David and the others who can think-together are “chrysalids” transitioning into a new society, they are also leaving a chrysalid of their previous society behind. Meanwhile, the supremacist ideas expressed by the Zealanders suggest that even though David and the group are transitioning to a new place and future, this society, too, will turn into an empty shell of the past.