What is the setting in chapter 6 of The Chrysalids?
The setting in chapter 6 of The Chrysalids is not very diverse. While readers will eventually get to see the Fringes, chapter 6 takes place entirely in Waknuk, which is a district within Labrador.
If you need a more specific location, that setting location would be David's house. The chapter begins with David recovering from his wounds and injuries that he got from Alan and his father. He spends the night dreaming, and David's dreams are dreams that he hasn't had in a long time. He dreams about the city with the fish in the sky, as well as about his father killing Sophie.
The following morning takes place in David's house as well. The Inspector visits with David again and asks him additional questions about Sophie. David struggles with believing that Sophie is a Blasphemy, and the Inspector tries to logically explain it. David's father returns to the house...
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and says that the Wenders have been captured, and David feels incredible guilt.
The rest of the chapter is a conversation between David and his uncle. David tells Uncle Axel that he is going to run away, and David has a lot of questions about what it is like outside of Waknuk. Uncle Axel explains quite a bit, but much of it is based on rumor. David will eventually get to experience firsthand what life is like outside of Waknuk.
In The Chrysalids, what is the plot and setting of Chapter 16?
David and the other telepaths, including Rosalind, fled to the Fringes once they were discovered after the incident with Petra’s horse. She called to them and they came without her making any noise, causing suspicion. They end up in a cave, where David has to deal with the meeting between his girlfriend Rosalind and his former girlfriend Sophie.
David and Sophie were young and when they were friends. Then her extra toes were discovered and she was sterilized and sent to the Fringes society. Sophie and Rosalind are clearly jealous of one another.
Sophie's eyes travelled over Rosalind, in her russet woollen dress with its brown cross applique, and rested for a moment on her leather shoes. She looked down at her own soft moccasins, then at her short, tattered skirt. (Ch. 16)
Sophie tells Rosalind that she has to remove the cross that is sewn to her bodice. The cross is required of all women in Waknuk, a strictly religious society, but is a vestige of the restrictive society they have left. Sophie tells Rosalind that the men resent the cross, because the women are sterilized before being sent to the Fringes.
Rosalind tries to treat Sophie with caring and compassion. However, Sophie resents Rosalind. When she tries to help Sophie, Sophie lashes out at Rosalind while David looks helplessly on, waiting to see what will happen.
'Damn you!' she said again. 'Go on, laugh at me, God damn your lovely face. Laugh at me because I do want him, me!' She gave a queer, choked laugh herself. 'And what's the use? Oh, God, what's the use? If he weren't in love with you, what good would I be to him — like this?' (Ch. 16)
In the end, it passes because David and Rosalind are on the outside too now. Since they have been exposed as telephaths, they are also deviants. They can’t return. The problem is that they ran away before they could be caught, so unlike all of the other women there Rosalind is intact. She has not been sterilized. Seeing her, Sophie imagines what she might have had. To make matters stranger, Sophie is with Spider, who is the leader of the Fringe group and David's uncle. His arms were too long.
David awakens, and communicates telepathically with Michael. They are being chased by Waknuk hunting parties. Petra, meanwhile, is communicating with distant Sealand, where someone is coming to rescue them. There, telepaths are not considered deviants.
Before the Sealanders can rescue them, they have to battle the religious fanatics of Waknuk, including David and Petra's father. The Fringe people fight back. Spider, David's uncle, shoots David's father. Sophie is killed in the chaos. The Sealanders land with their "gleaming white fish-shape" and rescue the telepaths.
What is the setting of the novel The Chrysalids?
The Chrysalids is set in Waknuk in a time deep into the distant future. There has been some kind of apocalyptic event, known as the Tribulation, and it has left the people of Waknuk in a 19th century level of technology.
Waknuk is in what today is Canda, in Labrador.
The civilized part of it -- of which Waknuk was only a small district -- was called Labrador. (ch 4)
Labrador is in the extreme eastern tip of Canada, near Newfoundland. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The areas around Waknuk are known as the Fringes, where an uncivilized people who have been kicked out of Waknuk are living.
The people of Sealand (New Zealand) live far away from Waknuk. They have more advanced technology, and can communicate telepathically.
Waknuk is a deeply religious society where no one who is different from their narrowly-defined view of human nature is allowed. They even destroy crops and livestock that show differences. As a result, there is no growth. Waknuk’s isolation allows it to control its people and prevent any evolution of its society.
Your father and his kind are a part of those fragments. They have become history without being aware of it. (ch 16)
By setting the story in the future, an allegory of our time is achieved. Waknuk is not so different from some of our countries and localities. An apocalypse is not so out of sight, and neither is a tyrannical theocracy.