Waknuk In The Chrysalids

Waknuk is David’s hometown in the story “The Chrysalids”. The village is located in central Labrador. It is a small agricultural community which lies in the west of Labrador. They have a maritime climate, being remotely tropical, without extreme heat. There tends to be a vast amount of forest cover with many fields making up majority of the landscape. The people of Newf and Labrador are the only humans who retained the pre-Tribulation phenotype. The only other known civilizations are vague and coloured by religious dogma. The Theocracy run government follows the Bible and the Repentances as a means of guidelines. Run off of the fear of God Himself, the people survive by keeping their race in the True Image. They do this by having inspectors which approve newly born children and give them a Normalcy Certificate. Any child that does not …show more content…
The Christian fundamentalist civilization arose centuries after a nuclear holocaust known as Tribulation. It is said that God will send a second Tribulation if the people do not dispose of deviations, blasphemies and offences. The community has many preachers which instil messages about God looking over Waknuk while the Devil looks over the Fringes, Badlands, Wildlands and other tainted places. The government has set up morning instruction classes with about half a dozen kids in a said grouping. The children are taught reading, writing and arithmetic skills. The old women who teach them ensure that they are educated, but not overly so. The children are taught to believe that they should try to return to, and emulate, the way of the Old People. The technological status of Waknuk echoes the Amish in the United States during the eighteenth century. For example, the steam engine is considered an advanced and unusual technology in Waknuk. As for the people, they live in a constant state of anxiety. At any moment, one can be persecuted for being or concealing a