Waknuk Society

Waknuk is a society set in a post-apocalyptic time, revolving around a boy named David, who has telepathic abilities but must hide them from his community because of the risk of getting caught with an abnormality, which in Waknuk is considered bad and punishable by banishment to the Fringes. Between Waknuk and our society today, customs are similar, and although the two have the same land placement; the two societies differ greatly in laws geographically and climate.
The tribulation, that took place before the Waknuk society was created, is presumably a war that raged on between the old people. The gas of an atomic bomb had wiped out almost the entire population of the old people, while also changing the future climate and geography. In

The laws of Waknuk are solely based on Nicholas’s repentances and the bible. Nicholas’s repentance is a book that withstood the damage of the tribulation, which tells the people of Waknuk how to properly get rid of deviants, blasphemies and offenses if they were to be spotted and the bible, allowing the people of Waknuk to have the knowledge of what a man made by god should look like and. In our society, laws are constantly changing to fit each generation according to time. Laws that fight for personal rights, animal rights, and to lower crime rate, are made to make our society better as a whole and make sure every citizen of a particular place have equal rights. It seems as though Waknuk’s laws are only made for “pressing matters” such as deviants or offences, things like murder and crime are not as important unless committed by a blasphemy. Furthermore, when the inspector found out how long David was keeping Sophie’s deviation a secret, he gave an example of one of Waknuk’s laws, “.....each foot should have five toes” (Wyndham, 55). A small detail of how many toes are on someone’s foot is put into the law to make Waknuk a “pure” place, whereas in our society the amount of toes on someone’s foot is not a problem regarding the law, but more of a social

In our society there are certain social standards that are a burden to both men and women. Although there are many people who are accepting of variety, there are also those who shun and try to isolate certain people who are different. Racism, discrimination, homophobia, xenophobia, and bigotry are all modernized words with more specific meaning, explaining what happens in Waknuk. In reality Waknuk is an emphasized version of our society, with drastic measures and life or death situations. Waknuk, being a metaphor of those who believe in the social standards and the fringes being the isolation that keeps people locked into their own world of struggles. Our society does not get rid of “deviations” but, our society does make it hard for those who are different. Waknuk shows the extremity that could be directed to the smallest of differences that others have. In conclusion when Harriet had her baby, and realised she possessed a feature that would label her as a blasphemy, she went to Emily to seek help. Emily refused to help her because of a small blemish that had formed on the baby, “You have the effrontery to bring your monster into my house, and tell me it’s nothing much!” (Wyndham, 71). If a baby was able to be judged on a blemish that formed before she was