English Literature Comparisons- Key Quotations The Chrysalids

1. Feminist Quotes

1.1. Use of women being used and presurisde into creating 'perfect children' in the 'image'

1.2. "Her trousers were worn through at the knees, and the knees themselves were sore and bleeding.I had never known anyone, boy or girl, who would have kept on till that pitch; it awed me slightly." (Shows some of the strength which some of the female characters showed however it is a rare occurrence in the novel)

1.3. "'Then God created woman, also, and in the same image, but with these differences, according to her nature: her voice should be of a higher pitch than a man's: she should grow no beard: she should have two breasts..."

1.4. I used to feel when I looked at her that I was seeing my mother as she might have been - as, I thought, I would have liked her to be. She was easier to talk to, too; she did not have a somewhat damping manner of listening only to correct.

1.5. "Why should I? I've done nothing to be ashamed of. I am not ashamed - I am only beaten." - Aunt Harriet

1.6. "If the worst comes to the worst, and you can't save Petra, it would be kinder to kill her than let her go to sterilization and banishment to the Fringes - a lot more merciful for a child."

1.7. It made me wonder how many mothers there might be who were turning a blind eye towards matters that did not actually infringe the Definition of the True Image... I wondered, to, whether my mother would, in secret, be glad or sorry that I had taken Petra away...

1.8. Rosalind was calling me; the real Rosalind, the one who dwelt inside, and showed herself too seldom. The other, the practical, capable one, was her own convincing creation, not herself... I had seen her find her weapons and become skilled with them, watched her construct a character so thoroughly and wear it so constantly that for spells she almost deceived herself.

1.9. None of them knew my dear, tender Rosalind longing for escape, gentleness, and love; grown afraid now of what she had built for her own protection; yet more afraid still, of facing life without it.

1.10. "You've got to have as little as I have to know how much that means. You've never known loneliness. You can't understand the awful emptiness that's waiting all around us here. I'd have given him babies gladly, if I could... Why didn't they kill me? It would have been kinder than this..."

2. Rebelion

2.1. "I shall pray to God to send charity to this hideous world, and sympathy for the weak, and love for the unhappy and unfortunate. I shall ask Him if is indeed His will that a child should suffer and its soul be damned for a little blemish on the body....And I shall pray Him, too, that the hearts of the self-righteous may be broken..."

2.2. "It was odd, I felt, how many people seemed to have positive, if conflicting, information upon God's views.

2.3. New node

3. Religion

3.1. Christian Belief (Bible)

3.2. "Deviations are not the lords image"

3.3. "Follow the lords preyer"

3.4. "And God created man in His own image. And God decreed that man should have one body, one head, two arms and two legs: that each arm should be jointed in two plces and end in one hand: that each hand should have four fingers and one thumb: that each finger should bear a flat finger-nail...."

3.5. "'Then God created woman, also, and in the same image, but with these differences, according to her nature: her voice should be of a higher pitch than a man's: she should grow no beard: she should have two breasts..."

3.6. "Respect for God was frequently on his lips, and fear of the devil constantly in his heart, and it seems to have been hard to say which inspired him more more."

3.7. "They haven't God's word like they thought: God doesn't have any last word. If He did He'd be dead. But He isn't dead; and He changes and grows, like everything else that's alive."

4. Brainwashing/ Political Techniques

4.1. "And any creature that shall seem to be human, but is not formed thus is not human. it is neither man nor woman. It is blasphemy against the true Image of God, and hateful in the sight of God."

4.2. "The ways of the world were very puzzling..."

4.3. "THE NORM IS THE WILL OF GOD, and, REPRODUCTION IS THE ONLY HOLY PRODUCTION and, THE DEVIL IS THE FATHER OF DEVIATION, and a number of others about Offences and Blasphemies."

4.4. Accursed is the mutant... The mutant, the enemy, not only of the human race, but of all the species God had decreed; the seed of the Devil within, trying unflaggingly, eternally to come to fruition in order that it might destroy the divine order and turn our land, the stronghold of Gold"s will upon Earth, into a lewd chaos... where true stock had given place to unnameable creatures, abominable growths flourished, and the spirits of evil mocked the Lord with obscene fantasies.

4.5. “Watch Thou For The Mutant.” Waknuk Proverb