The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, 1955 David lives in a post-apocalyptic world where all mental and physical abnormalities are ritualistically purged. After being outed as psychics, David and his friends flee to the Fringes. This extract is from the opening chapter of the novel.

We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in mini-skirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held here; the music lingered, a palimpsest* of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light. There was loneliness in the room, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over lifting
flesh. We yearned for the future. How did we learn it, that talent for insatiability? It was in the air; and it was still in the air, an afterthought, as we tried to sleep, in the army cots that had been set up in rows, with spaces between so we could not talk. We had flannelette sheets, like children’s, and army-issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S. We folded our clothes neatly and laid them on the stools at the ends of the beds. The lights were turned down but not out. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts. No guns though, even they could not be trusted with guns. Guns were for the guards, specially picked from the Angels. The guards weren’t allowed inside the building except when called, and we
weren’t allowed out, except for our walks, twice daily, two by two around the football field which was enclosed now by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The Angels stood outside it with their backs on us. They were objects of fear to us but of something else as well. If only they would look. If only we could talk to them. Something could be exchanged, we thought, some deal made, some trade-off, we still had our bodies. That was our fantasy. We learned to whisper almost without sound. In the semi-darkness, we could stretch out our arms, when the Aunts weren’t looking, and touch each other’s hands across space. We learned to lip-read, our heads flat on the beds, turned sideways, watching each other’s mouths. In this way we exchanged names, from bed to bed : Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June. A palimpsest is a piece of paper that has been used more than once and still shows signs of the earlier writing or artwork. It is like an echo of what was there before.

Check your comprehension!

1. Where is our main character? ………………………………………………………………………………………….
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2. How are the women treated?
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Q1—Look at lines 21-27 and write down four things we learn about the Angels/Guards:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Q2—Look at lines 1-9 and think about the language used to describe the room they are staying in. Highlight three quotations you could potentially use in your answer. Number each quotation you’ve
highlighted and write down the technique and effect used for each one below:

1. Technique:
Effect:
2. Technique:
Effect:
3. Technique:
Effect: