The Town of Waknuk in The Chrysalids

            In the novel "The Chrysalids," by John Wyndham, blind acceptance of religious traditions and strict social conformity leads to the persecution and destruction of fellow human beings. If you're anything but normal society decides to not accept you. Waknuk relates to our world in a variety of different ways. In Waknuk the town doesn't accept anything different than "the normal". .
             In the fictional novel, Waknuk is a town that was created after a nuclear explosion with only two books surviving, The Bible and Nicholson's Repentances. These two books being the only two things that survived the explosion, it resulted the town to be very Christian. Everyone in the town wants everyone to be the same and to be classified as "normal". If someone is different than they are considered mutants. Animals were slaughtered and crops were burned down if they weren't "normal". Many people in the town were different, but they had to keep it a secret. Sophie, Spider-man, David, animals with an extra limb or head, and unusual crops or plants with odd forms was all considered to be different. The entire town deals with God and how he wants his town to be perfect. "Each leg shall be jointed twice and have one foot, and each foot five toes", Sophie had six toes, when David saw her foot it put not only Sophie in danger but him also because David's family is very strict about mutants. If a child is born with even a slight deformity, as small as a birthmark they were considered a deviation or a mutant and would be sent away to live in the fringes. The mother of a deformed or not "normal" child also got beaten for giving birth to a mutant, although the fathers did not. I don't think that's fair because in my perspective the father is giving half of the gene to the child. .
             Religion has caused destruction and persecution of fellow human beings in the world throughout history.