Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter eight ended by telling us that a new telepath had been discovered. In the beginning of chapter nine, we are revealed that David's sister Petra is this newcomer. David was working in oneof the fields when he felt a sudden compulsion to run. He runs straight towards a river and jumps in near Petra, who is holding on to a plant trying to stay above water. Rosalind also runs towards the same point and asks him who was able to do that, along with all the others. David explains who it was and tells the others to wait until either he or Rosalind can explain everything. The other farmhands then arrive wanting to know how he knew. Rosalind then states that she was surprised everyone didn't come running, as Petra was screaming so loud. This seems to calm their suspicion.

The rest of the chapter explains that the next season was very bad and had a high mutation rate. He then ends up talking to old Jacob, a farmhand. Jacob starts to rant that the bad season is a warning from God that Man has strayed from the true path. He goes on about how, in  his day, blasphemies were burnt and that the people today are being too lenient. This alarms David, as the idea of burning human deviations is very brutal to him. Jacob then continues on, stating that the government to the East, who never had to deal with deviations, had changed it so that blasphemies were sent to the fringes instead. He calls them weak-minded and cowards. This, to me, seems very much like today's situation with social tolerance. Many people think that society today is far to lenient on what is socially acceptable. For example, homosexuality has seen a lot more sympathy in recent year whereas in previous generations it was severely looked down upon. The same goes for romantic relationships. One or two generations ago it was unthinkable for a boyfriend or girlfriend to live together, let alone have children. yet it is accepted in modern society as somewhat normal behaviour.

Chapter ten details the marriage of one of the telepaths, Anne. She decides to marry Alan, the boy who discovered Sophie's mutation. The rest of the telepaths are strongly against the marriage of a normal person, or a "norm" as the telepaths call them. Anne then points out that there are three males in the group and five females. She asks if the remaining two should never marry,but Micheal says that there must be other telepaths to marry. The argument shows that the group members expected to marry within themselves, without even considering whether they were 'in love'. This surprised me somewhat, until I remembered the progress of their society. Marrying for love only became a normal procedure later in our history. The other notable part in the chapter is when Uncle Axel suggest killing Anne to protect the rest of the group but David points out that the bonds between the group members are far too strong for that to be possible. This shows that we, as normal humans, struggle to understand any form of thinking other than our own. I want to compare this telepathy situation along with that of a hive mind. Since we think purely as individuals, creating and organizing thoughts on our own and then communicating them physically or verbally, we can not even begin to understand  what it would be like.