The main conflict in the novel, The Chrysalids, is that the main character is different, in a way, from everybody else, which causes him to live a life of hiding his true self from his family and the cult the whole community follows, and he ends up having to run away, and forsake his family. He also has to take on a lot of responsibilities, such as taking care of his sister and not giving away his friend, in a way. Because of these conflicts the main character becomes much more mature by the end, and he also stops believing the cult for good. One of the ideas that emerge from this conflict is how discrimination against a person has really negative effects, and how discrimination against a whole group of people is even worse. What I find interesting is the way he author portrays the different beliefs based on the situation of the people, where they live, for example, the people at waknuk have a hat for "deviations" because they do not match the "perfect image", but the people in the fringes think that the "perfect image" is always changing, and that to limit it is wrong.