History Literature / TheChrysalids

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: David, Rosalind and Petra are rescued by the Sealanders and taken to their shining city, where they will enjoy a safer, happier life in a ''much'' more advanced society. However, the as-yet-undiscovered Michael chooses to stay behind in Labrador to save his LoveInterest Rachel, we discover that Sophia suffered a wretched life in the Fringes before she is shot in the final battle, Sally and Katherine are caught and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]], Jack, another telepath, disappears, and the [[LackOfEmpathy casual indifference]] and clear sense of superiority the Sealanders display towards the non-telepaths suggest that, in some ways, they aren't that much better than the people of Labrador.]]

--> '''David:''' ''(narrating)'' It was as though she had been erased from everyone's memories save mine.

--> '''David:''' We had a gift, a sense which, Michael complained bitterly, should have been a blessing, but was little better than a curse. The stupidest norm was happier; he could feel that he belonged.

--> '''Joseph:''' It is your moral duty to issue an order against these so-called horses.
--> '''Inspector:''' It's part of my ''official'' duty to protect them from harm by fools and bigots.

* EternalEnglish: Despite having only the vaguest idea of the Old Ones' civilization, and no documents from it save the Bible (and that probably, from the internal evidence, the ''King James Version''), human society of many centuries hence still sounds remarkably like 1950's Britain, with perhaps a bit of similarly-vintage American dime novel thrown in. The Sealanders have a noticeably odd pronunciation -- presumably the descendant of the original New Zealand accent -- but can otherwise make themselves understood to David and co. with no trouble.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Sealanders may be more advanced and enlightened than Labrador society in many ways, but -- as more than one critic has pointed out -- the two peoples share a very similar willingness to ruthlessly destroy any threat to their established 'norm'. Lampshaded to some extent by the Sealand woman, who views the Waknuk posse riding after the telepaths as fighting against their own inevitable extinction in the face of a superior human variant, and muses that they, the 'think-together people', will have to do the same one day.

* KissingCousins: David and Rosalind. Well, they're [[NotBloodSiblings half-cousins,]] anyway.

* MonochromeCasting: Rather oddly given the location, there's no indication of Inuit or other ethnic diversity in Waknuk. Black skin is called out as a particularly strange deviation found only among more southerly (probably remnants of the Caribbean) peoples... which raises [[FridgeHorror some uncomfortable possibilities]] re: what might've happened to any previous minorities of colour in the Labrador area, at the hands of the majority Caucasian population.

* ProjectileWebbing: The Sealanders' helicopter is equipped with a device that entraps enemies in weblike, sticky strands. However, unlike most examples of this trope, the webbing chokes those trapped in it to death- ''[[SinisterSuffocation slowly]]''.

* PsychicChildren: David & company in the early part of the book, and Petra later on.

%%* SitcomArchNemesis: The inspector's early exchanges with Joseph have something of the flavour of this.

%%* {{Technophobia}}: The remaining human population, who are basically a PostApocalyptic version of the Amish, living in some of the few places hospitable to human habitation, albeit very pre-industrial.

%% * {{Tsundere}}: Rosalind is a definite Type A.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: The main characters will never be able to return to Labrador after their rescue by the Sealanders- not that they'd want to, though.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Given that her six toes are a major plot driver, Sophie is seen barefoot, or taking off her shoes, in most of her appearances.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Aunt Harriet- her body is found in a river after Emily refuses to let her 'borrow' the newborn Petra so her mutant baby, her third child, can be issued a normalcy certificate]].

* ExtraDigits: Sophie's six toes.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Joseph Strorm once slew a neighbor's tailless cat as a Deviation, without waiting for the outcome of an appeal to the authorites. ''Then'' comes confirmation that there is in fact a recognized species of tailless cat with a well-documented history. The inspector is fond of citing this embarrassing blot on Mr. Strorm's KnightTemplar reputation.

* AffablyEvil: The inspector. He's shown as an amiable, basically humane bureaucrat who strongly objects to Joseph Strorm's harsh inflexibility, and his treatment of David particularly. However he's also an unimaginative man who ''never'' questions his mission; it's indicated that he thus takes part in the relentless interrogation of the captured telepaths, leading to their deaths.

* NotSoDifferent: The Sealanders may be more advanced and enlightened than Labrador society in many ways, but -- as more than one critic has pointed out -- the two peoples share a very similar willingness to ruthlessly destroy any threat to their established 'norm'. Lampshaded to some extent by the Sealand woman, who views the Waknuk posse riding after the telepaths as fighting against their own inevitable extinction in the face of a superior human variant, and muses that they, the 'think-together people', will have to do the same one day.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: David, Rosalind, Petra, Rachel and Michael are rescued by the Sealanders and taken to their shining city, where they will enjoy a safer, happier life in a ''much'' more advanced society. However, we discover that Sophia suffered a wretched life in the Fringes before she is shot in the final battle, Sally and Katherine are caught and [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured to death]], and the [[LackOfEmpathy casual indifference]] and clear sense of superiority the Sealanders display towards the non-telepaths suggest that, in some ways, they aren't that much better than the people of Labrador.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: Most Blasphemies are discovered and hence banished to the Fringes as ''[[UpToEleven newborn babies]]'' by the people of Labrador, and any discovered as older children suffer the same fate.

* HarmfulToMinors: In-universe. Most Blasphemies are discovered and hence banished as newborn babies.

%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Aunt Harriet]]. Anne also to an extent.

* ProjectileWebbing: The Sealander's helicopter is equipped with a device that entraps enemies in weblike, sticky strands. However, unlike most examples of this trope, the webbing chokes those trapped in it to death- ''[[SinisterSuffocation slowly]]''.

In this theology born of ignorance and fear, any radiation-bred mutant -- no matter how slightly abnormal -- is interpreted as either a Deviation (plants, lower animals) or, more horribly still, a Blasphemy: a human-shaped but soulless mockery of God's perfection sent by Satan to lure Man off the faint and narrow path to righteousness. They all must be ruthlessly rooted out and destroyed lest they contaminate the purity of Godly society. In the case of Blasphemies, there is just enough mercy that they are merely sterilized and banished (usually at birth) to the wild country known as the Fringes, to survive or not as they can.

* [[KillAllHumans Kill All Mutants]]: A recurring theme. The tables are turned near the end of the novel.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Nor would you want to.

* {{Technophobia}}: The remaining human population, who are basically a PostApocalyptic version of the Amish, living in some of the few places hospitable to human habitation, albeit very pre-industrial.

* DefrostingIceQueen: Rosalind

* FeudingFamilies: On top of everything else they have to deal with, David and Rosalind's. Their fathers make a point of spying on each others' farms in order to publicly point out deviations in the crops or livestock.

* MoralLuck: At the end of the book, our heroes are trapped in a cave when TheCavalry show up, killing everyone else in the area. The bad news is, one of them is the protagonist's childhood friend Sophie, who is currently protecting him and his fellow fugitives. The good news is, the Sealanders' weapon ''doesn't'' kill her -- David explicitly sees her shot in battle just moments before they arrive. One wonders how the Sealand woman's speech about how 'necessary' their actions were would've gone over with David and co. had it involved Sophie's death in particular.

* TheResenter: All the telepaths toward their powers, at some point. Anne goes so far as to try to 'stop' herself in order to marry a norm.
** Sophie becomes this toward Rosalind when the two meet later in the novel; not so much because she sees her as a rival for David and/or Gordon, as that Rosalind's untouched beauty -- and presumed fertility -- throw Sophie's sense of her own futile existence into sharp relief.

* ArtisticLicencePhysics: The Sealanders' helicopter is stated to consume fuel, which is why [[spoiler:they can't afford to rescue the other telepaths]]. However, it's not possible to build a chemical-fuelled helicopter that could travel from New Zealand to Britain and back on one tank. This plot hole eventually inspired [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12743255/1/Destination-Zealand a fanfiction]] exploring how it could have worked using a zeppelin.

* TheTheTitle: The usual title is ''The Chrysalids'', but it has also been called "Re-Birth" or "Rebirth" in other editions.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The older Penguin editions feature a bizarre-looking mutant on the cover with green skin, no mouth and lobster claws for hands. None of the mutants in the book look anything close to this.

----

* ActionGirl: Rosalind and Sophie.

* DeadpanSnarker: The inspector, and Michael.
* DeathByIrony: Joseph Strorm is killed by his own mutated brother Gordon.

* DrivenToSuicide: Aunt Harriet. Anne also to an extent.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: And how...

* HotBlooded: Rosalind, Michael and Sophie.

* SinisterMinister: Joseph.
* SitcomArchNemesis: The inspector's early exchanges with Joseph have something of the flavour of this.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Sophie has, for obvious reasons, been told never to let anyone apart from her parents see her feet. But, shortly after meeting David, she ''takes her shoe off''. Admittedly, she was justified in doing to on that occasion as her foot had become stuck in a crack and there was no other way she could get free. However, she later removes her shoes to go paddling in a stream, leaves an incriminating footprint and is reported as a Blasphemy. Following an unsuccessful attempt to escape with her parents, she is forcibly sterilised and cast out into the Fringes.

** Gordon Strorm also comes across as this, right up until he deliberately announces his intent to rape his nephew's fiancée (and, it's strongly hinted, is at least interested in his nine-year-old niece).

* {{Irony}}: A recurring theme in the book. That Joseph Strorm, the most extreme of the mutant-hating population of Waknuk, has ''two'' children that are mutants is just the tip of the iceberg.

* {{Tsundere}}: Rosalind is a definite Type A. She could also be argued to be a {{Kuudere}}.