In The Chrysalids, John Wyndham created a fictional world that expressed the contemporary anxiety about the nuclear threat posed by the Cold War arms race. Told from the point of view of a naive narrator, David, The Chrysalids explores the post-apocalyptic landscape of strict religion, civil conflict and extraordinary genetic mutation.
Your task is to create your own future dystopia, replicating some of the key features of Wyndham’s “The Chrysalids”, while updating it to represent a future where our current world has veered off course and the main character is dealing with the consequences.
The parameters for this task:
- The narrator must be unreliable in the sense that they do not fully understand the nature of the apocalypse that has lead to this dystopia
- The language of the text must use features that are recognisable from John Wyndham’s writing
- The dramatic irony of the piece should be developed by providing triggers to the reader’s understanding of the nature of the apocalypse.
The Presentation:
The Extract:
