A tightly-focused disaster story about English society under extreme duress, but none of his works grabbed this subject matter with such vigour as The Day Of The Triffids in which the panic and desperation of a blinded populace is revealed.
Plot
An ecological disaster of unimaginable scope...A world wide crisis over oil production...A laboratory created strain of plant life, genetically altered to increase production, proves deadly both to humans and all forms of large animal life...Biological warfare in the form of a new and deadly plague accidentally unleashed, wipes out the majority of the human population...An artificial satellite carrying a new and deadly weapon is triggered, perhaps accidentally, affects the entire earth, not just the population it was designed for...
Cold War
The book is an unmistakable product of Cold War apprehension about what many perceived to be the impending doom of the human race. Written at the time when the Russians had just exploded their own atomic bomb (but before the true nuclear horrors of the hydrogen weapons), the novel is a reflection of the fright that one day (and possibly sooner than later), humanity will slip off the tight-rope of nuclear brinkmanship into the abyss of nuclear holocaust. It is no coincidence that the Russians engineer the triffids in the first place in an apparent attempt to deal with overpopulation, lack of resources, and overcome dependence on capitalist oil. It is ironic, of course, that it takes the greed of Westerners to unleash the scourge upon the world. This was years before the Russians launched Sputnik (1957), moving intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellite weapons from theory into practice. But the writing was on the wall and Wyndham correctly saw it.
Another bit of the Cold War shadow hanging over the book is the touching faith of many Britons in America. It is expressed several times throughout the book and ranges from "the Americans could not let something like this happen to them" to "they will be here any time soon to rescue us." Whether they would was, of course, the quintessential puzzle for the Europeans. Although dismissed by everyone who let himself or herself acknowledge to true magnitude of the disaster, the blind faith in America is touching even today. If America does not save the world, who would? Who could?
Class Struggle/Rise of the Minority
Triffids, like any exploited minority group in history, their true talents were ignored or mutilated and even their intelligence was denied. They were kept in absolute slavery until modern technology in the form of war machines that caused blindness and a plague gave them a chance for rebellion. As in all riots and rebellions of a class that has been kept down too long, what follows is an explosion of violence. The triffids have no thought but to get rid of man once and for all. The point is, while that makes them a horrible and brutal enemy, it was man that made them the enemy.
Morality
In a touchingly realistic scene, once Bill Masen understands the situation, he spends some hours just wandering the streets of London, at a dead loss as to what to do next. He feels he ought to do something, but doesn't know what. He'd like to help the people around him, but doesn't know how. He is overwhelmed. It is the same question raised by the movie, Titanic. In the movie, when all the lifeboats are launched and the ship sinks, there are 1500 people in the water about to die. Should the lucky ones in the lifeboats try to rescue some of them? If they do, what if too many try to climb aboard, sink the lifeboat and no one survives? Yet, to do nothing is to let the people in the water freeze and drown. It's a moral question with no easy answers and it is at the heart of the book.
Bill and Josella have to grapple with the ultimate moral problem: What, if anything, should they do for the millions helpless blind people of London? The heart says "help them," but reason says "impossible." The two resolve to join a group of seeing intent on building a new community, even though this necessarily means abandoning some of the old ways, especially in Christian morality. It is quite astonishing that, just like a Heinlein heroine, it is Josella who quickly realizes that the survival imperative will turn women into children-bearers and men into more (less?) than husbands. That Bill objects to this and has to be persuaded to take on a harem is perhaps even more astonishing. But it is Wyndham's investigation of the morality of survival strategies that sticks: the individual vs. the group, the loss of societal restraints, considerations of feudalism and territorialism.
Survival of the Species/Civilisation
If only a few people are together, all their efforts have to go towards survival and that means their grandchildren will be overworked subsistence farmers. There's a quote from the book that says that a workable society needs a leader, a doctor and a teacher. Bill, as a biologist begins to have ideas about ways to destroy the triffids, but has no possibility of developing his ideas unless he can find a group large enough to help him.
A devoutly Christian community that has split from the original group because of the latter's immoral ways. This community is obviously doomed to a slow extinction, and it finally succumbs to a combination of the plague and the triffids.
Note the rise (Brighton?) of the new semi-feudal order where a bunch of petty tyrants would run their own fiefs populated with blind under the pretext of saving them. They are also busy building an army to fight off possible invasions or invade others.
Characters
It is now very much a period work (50 years since published). Note: - no computers, no genetic engineering, no TV – the absence of blacks and Asians, the prim vernacular, and the ominous Soviet scientists all mark the novel as very much of its time. However, the characters it portrays are still with us - the schoolmarmish Miss Durrant; Coker, the self-educated organiser and uncommitted radical; the well meaning but ineffectual Michael Beadley and the Colonel; and the brutal Torrence.
Modern Woman
For a novel written in 1951, the woman, Joselle, is remarkably liberated. She is consistently strong, sensible and thoughtful. She spends much of the novel on her own so the relationship between the two becomes that of two self-reliant people who have come to love each other. She is part of the decisions they have to make about the future for themselves, their family and friends.
Written by our gifted and revered book club member Peter Deyell
Overall Score: 7.5/10