The Chrysalids Topic: Courage

1. Good Morning,Kind Sirs And Ma’am.DO Give us your fullest attention as well as a healthy amount of marks. Now we shall begin our presentation.

2. The Chrysalids Topic: Courage Group Members: Anthony Lim Jun Hong (1) Peng Wei Xing (18) Mark Wee (25) Yong Wen Shiuan (31)

3. Courage: the quality of mind or  spirit that enables a  person to face difficulty, danger, pain,  etc., without fear;  bravery.

4. Examples of Conflicts between characters in the Chrysalids • Examples of Conflicts between characters in the Chrysalids • Conflict between David and the Inspector/Joseph Strorm • (David’s courage to keep Sophie’s secret vs Joseph /inspector’s commitment religious Waknuk laws) • Conflict between Emily Strorm and Aunt Harriet’s baby • (Harriet’s moral courage for concealing her baby vs Emily’s fear of repercussion from the law and Joseph and lack of moral courage) • Fight between Alan Erwin and David over Sophie’s extra toe • (David’s courage to help his friends illegally vs Alan’s courage to obey the law) • Mental conflict within David in the Wender’s house • (Courage to face the eerie night vs fear of darkness, movements)

5. Choice of conflict: • Conflict between Emily Strorm and Aunt Harriet over Harriet’s baby • Conflict: • Aunt Harriet courageously requests to swap babies with Emily Strorm in order to conceal her child’s deviation. • Emily Strorm has to decide whether to adhere to her sister’s request or to submit to and obey the Waknuk law as well as her religious husband, Joseph • Emily Strorm’s submissiveness to Joseph and his religious beliefs overpowers her comittment to her sister.

6. Implications and results • Aunt Harriet has no choice but to submit her deviation baby to the inspector • She fears however, that her child would not be safe in the Fringes, thus she commit suicide to prevent this from happening. • This shows a loss for the minority of the society who disagree with the commonly held beliefs.

7. Is the Conflict is resolved? • The conflict is not completely resolved • Aunt Harriet commits suicide and the problem is not resolved as both parties fail to reach a resolution • The Waknuk society still stands by the same principles of exiling etc, as if nothing ever happened.

8. The Author’s message It is impossible for the minority to go up against the majority and win Based on the above, the theme that can be articulated is given below: Courage to stand up for one’s beliefs against a majority is ultimately futile.

9. Justification for the Theme: • Quote 1: ‘I couldn’t help it, Sophie,’ I sobbed, ‘I couldn’t help it.’ (pg. 45) • This quote shows David, after being punished by Joseph, eventually, gave in and told him about Sophie and her parents. • This again shows that although David had the courage to keep mum, he lost in the end and divulged the information to Joseph, who represents the society.

10. Quote 2:They have broken Katherine. They have broken her… Oh, Katherine, dear… you mustn’t blame her, any of you. Please, please don’t blame her. They are torturing her. It might have been any of us. She’s all clouded now. She can’t hear us…Oh Katherine, darling…’ • This quote shows that Katherine had the courage not to betray her friends originally. • She gives in eventually under torture however. • This again supports the theme that the minority’s (Sally and Katherine) courage is futile against the majority

11. Quote 3: That was one of the parts of the journal that got Marther into a lot of trouble with orthodox people, for it implied that deviations, so far from being a curse, were performing, however slowly, a work of reclamation. Along with a half a dozen more heresies, it landed Marther in court and started agitation for a ban on further exploration. • This shows that conformity is the norm and anyone who tries to go against it would be frowned upon and face negative consequences. Marther whose observations were deemed too radical was persecuted. • Marther, who had the courage to go against the majority and publish his thoughts and observations on his explorations was taken to court on account of heresy

12. Quote 4: ‘This is the third time. They’ll take my baby away again like they took the others. I can’t stand that- not again. Henry will turn me out, I think. He’ll find another wife, who can give him proper children. There’ll be nothing- nothing in the world for me- nothing. I came here, hoping against hope for sympathy and help. Emily is the only person who can help me. I-I can see now how foolish I was to hope at all. • This shows that Aunt Harriet’s hopes were dashed after Emily rejected her plan. • She had the courage to put everything on the line to save her deviation child. • Her plans failed despite her courage as her sister rejected her for the sake of conforming to society. • This again shows how the minority who have different beliefs from the majority are doomed to fail.

13. What narrative or literary devices does the author use to reinforce the message/meaning of the text?: • Quote 5:“Blessed is the norm.” “The norm is the Will Of God.” • This motif tells me that conformity is very important to the Waknuk society. • It suggests that any minority who dares to have different beliefs from the majority of the society would be severely persecuted • This supports the theme that the courage of a minority with different beliefs cannot triumph over a majority of the society with the societal norm beliefs.

14. Thank you for your reasonably kind attention!

15. Q&A Session Try and curb your enthusiasm. Ask your questions in an orderly fashion please.