Message of Humanity in The Day of the Triffids: Critical Analysis

The dystopian science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham written in December 1951 is an excellent example of a valued, entertaining text due to its insight on human nature. Throughout the story, the writer has incorporated multiple characters who react in different ways to the challenges of surviving in the new, blind, dangerous world.

We learn about how quickly human moral’s change and how truly violent people will become in the name of survival, doing so in an engaging manner. This is an incredible story that teaches about the nature of humankind, how quickly people will change when their survival is at risk.

The message of humanity that The Day of the triffids tells is explored engagingly from the first chapter of the book “The End Begins” where humanity is put through a great deal of change. This change is when the people of the world are slowly becoming blind due to a comet. This is change is communicated through the literary techniques of symbolism. Aside from the genuine physical blindness, the blindness is also a symbol of humanity’s sightlessness and the hesitation of people to appropriately estimate the dangers that the triffids posed. As well as their lack of realisation on how much they depend on their sight. This aspect of blindness is carried out throughout the book using imagery as there are numerous descriptions of blindness like when Wyndham speaks about the” loss” of Bill’s “ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet” communicating the writer’s perspective on blindness. This perspective is used with narrative language describing both literal, physical darkness brought about by the inability to see but also abundant imagery that features figurative blindness. There is also a use of allegorically to suggest a sort of emotional and spiritual blindness mostly in the philosophy of the most successful sighted survivors. Blindness also refers to the overwhelming self-confidence of mankind, thinking that they will forever remain on top of the food chain. This figurative and literal blindness is what lulls humanity into a false sense of safety and so once this safety was compromised the triffids were quick to exploit this situation, revealing the risks humanity takes to survive.

The Day of the Triffids also covey’s fragility of human domination as an idea of humanity. The writer compares both the plague and the triffids of complete, unexplained blindness to show how fragile humanity’s dominance of the world is. In the novel, a simple change in the “normal condition”, which is, in this case, the dependence of humanity on sight, when shortly removed on a large enough scale, would have wreaked havoc on our society, quite possibly enough to destroy it in its entirety or its right. Also, in the chapter “Rendezvous” the author uses dialogue to communicate this idea of the fragility of human domination. Bill speaks of how he doesn’t “think it had ever occurred to”, him “that man’s supremacy is not primarily due to his brain” and that “His civilization, all that he had achieved or might achieve, hung upon his ability to perceive that range of vibrations from red to violet.” In this piece of dialogue, Bill sums up the fragility of the so-called dominance of man that is the reign of man depends upon ideal conditions being fulfilled, specifically the condition of being able to see. This idea of superiority also uses irony as it is ironic that the so-called supremacy of men relies on his ability to see. If that was taken out of the equation it was shocking how easily society fell apart and all that was held, dear.

Violence and deception are also communed in The Day of the Triffids as an idea of humanity appealingly throughout the story. In the chapter “Frustration” the writer use foreshadowing as wilder Coker kidnaps some of the survivors who can still see, the violence and deception he uses to advance his schema foreshadows the stratagem of the new government, which relies on force intimidation. Similarly, throughout the book, Bill’s problems come not from the relatively unintelligent Triffids but from his fellow human survivors. The climax of the book is when representatives of the new government take Susan hostage in an attempt to force Bill and his colony. The use of Susan to manipulate Bill into a situation of surrender further proves the use of deception by humanity as a means to get what one wants. The new government throughout the text is depicted as the cause of most of the violence as a way to gain for their own agenda.

In conclusion, The Day of the Triffids proves to be an outstanding example of an appreciated and enjoyable book due to its many perspectives on humanity that is captivatingly presented during the text. These perceptions of humankind are change, the fragility of human domination and violence and deception. These different insights on humanity let the audience imagine the chaos and destruction that may be brought upon us in the near future.