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The dystopic theme in The Chrysalids can be heavily compared and contrasted to the film A Clockwork Orange. Both stories contain the negative aspects of a society, where violence and corruption in the authority is highly expressed. The concept of control is negatively depicted throughout both plots, conveying the same image of a totalitarian society.

The dystopic theme shows how violence can be the tool to gain power above others. In A Clockwork Orange you see how Alex uses violence against the gang to gain power back. However later he is betrayed by the same gang, which left him to get caught by the police. In The Chrysalids the society uses violence and hate to “filter” their species to be “pure” of the human race, without any deformities or mutations. David’s father also used violence to obtain his power and control; when David stayed at Sophie’s house to help cover her getaway, later his father was about to whip him for not coming home that night. As with Alex, David ended up betraying his father by running away towards the Fringes for protection since he was now considered a deviation. Both authors describe how violence and fear may work for a short period of time for power and respect, but in the long run turn back on the person inflicting it.

The novels also present an overpowering government like state. Wyndham described a society that was run by the theory to keep everything unchanged. Using any means necessary like the act of violence and torture to torment the people mutated. When the society found out that David and his friends were able to communicate through the mind, the government tortured his friends Sara and Rachel to tell them everything about it. In A Clockwork Orange the government in an experiment to change criminal behavior had victimized Alex. Using psychological tortures to change his ways. The two stories following the same dystopic governmental fear brought towards the main character(s).

            Other than control and violence the subject of sex in both the film and the novel are not expressed in the terms of love and affection. However sex is either used as a method of violence and control or just reproduction. Alex uses sex and rape to feel superior and controlling. In The Chrysalids the leader of the Fringes, Gordon, wants sex for reproduction of children. “Take a look at ‘em as you go. Maybe you’ll understand a bit more. Besides, this one can have children. I’ve had a fancy for some children a long time now (Wyndham 163).” He kidnapped David’s lover, Rosalind, hoping she can fulfill his dream to obtain kids. The woman in both plots are depicted as materialistic not characteristic, being used as a form of pleasure or reproduction. Giving a sense that woman are slaves in both societies like how Margaret Atwood depicts in her novel A Maidens Tale. The authors follow the dystopic like genre that sex is no longer used for true love and affection in a society obsessed with power, control and corruption. The Chrysalids and A Clockwork Orange describe how freedom and peace are stripped from people’s lives, forming a new dystopic way of living.

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