The Chryslids - Plausible John Wyndham's “The Chryslids” is a funny but plausible story. It forces the reader to think about human nature and our attitude towards the world around us that we often take for granted. The setting of “The Chrysalids” is several hundred years after a nuclear war. What remains of civilization are a few small cities here and there in all the countries of the world. The population is, according to the leadership, what the “true picture” apparently should be. If you are not of the true picture, then you are sent to live on the fringes. Many people and animals are born with birth defects caused by nuclear radioactivity that is still present from previous years' nuclear destruction. The population considered to be of the “true image” is cruel to “monsters” or “mutants”. Some people in the novel are also very bigoted like David's father. He thinks he's the king of the castle and he can't be wrong. If he says something, it should happen, for example when he argued with the inspector about the giant horses or when he burned the family cat because it had no tail, for example "It is your moral duty to issue an order against these so-called horses!!" Several people, including David's father, all agree that deviants are from the devil and should be castrated or expelled from society. Another thing is that people are forced to accept the laws and if they don't they are also expelled from society where they would like to be killed or spend the rest of their miserable lives in the swamps of the marginal people of the other small towns around. They don't need to think about how long their supplies of these materials will last because all they use at the moment are trees, which they seem to have in abundance, and water that they get from wells and rivers there, the food they grow or hunt , they cook and bake things over open fires, I suppose.