The Chrysalids is a science fiction story by John Wyndham, a popular twentieth-century British writer. It takes place in the future, many years after a nuclear war has devastated large areas of the world. The society of Waknuk in Labrador has survived, but it is a primitive agricultural theocracy reminiscent of Salem, Massachusetts at the time of the Salem witch-hunts. However, in Waknuk it isn't witches but mutants that the people fear. Radiation from the …showed first 75 words of 1596 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1596 total…the people of the free world, Sealand, who have progressed. In their escape to Sealand, the children are like insects leaving behind their crawling caterpillar existence to emerge from their chrysalis as free-flying butterflies. On the other hand, the whole society of Waknuk could be seen as a chrysalis, a dormant and stagnant intermediate stage between the earlier humans who caused the nuclear destruction and the new enlightened and telepathic humans who live in Sealand.