Who Is David The Protagonist In The Chrysalids

“The Chrysalids” is a novel lived through the eyes of a telepathic child, David Strorm, from central Labrador. Throughout the novel you can easily identify the problems David has to face and notice his lack of being able to problem solve, constantly relying on other characters in the novel. David shows very minimal heroic qualities, and often gets himself in trouble and at home by disobeying his father, Joseph Strorm, and his religion, rules and traditions. David concealed the identity of a blasphemy which is a major crime in his village. David is not the protagonist in this novel because he lacks wisdom and heroic traits that a true protagonist would have. David has a lack of wisdom and making the right choices and the right time, but despite David being only 10 years old, he hasn’t faced many similar problems before. David is smart for his age, but has an uncommon trait of being telepathic and left handed. The only heroic actions David's performs throughout the novel are influenced by other people. When David stayed overnight at Sophie’s, it was Sophie’s mom’s influence that gave David enough courage to disobey his father. Sophie’s mom

Sophie is always willing to do anything to save David or anyone else in their group. David on the other hand is prone to staying behind other group members and allowing them to do all the hard tasks they face. The book is first person in the eyes of David, so you live through what he does as he grows up in Waknuk. Being first person can be bias because whatever David says in the novel is always going to be in the best interest of himself. Even being through the eyes of David throughout the whole novel, he demonstrates very minimal heroic traits. If this novel was through the eyes of Sophie, we could have seen even more heroic traits and actions from Sophie, rather from just David’s perspective of Sophie in the short bursts of time they are