Wyndham, John: 1903-1969

The Day of the Triffids, 1951 - Thematic Parallels: Survival

Survival generally means continuing to live or exist despite challenges, dangers, or hardship.
Wyndham, John: The Day of the Triffids, 1951
The book is a blend of survival adventure, speculative biology, and social commentary, examining how fragile civilization becomes when struck by global disaster.
The following books are thematically simliar. They lend themselves well to being read in groups, compared with one another, or used to teach a similar topic over an extended period with a class:
- D’Aguiar, Fred: Feeding the Ghosts, 1997, ~130pp
  This novel explores themes related to survival, societal challenges, or human resilience in difficult circumstances.
  - Each novel uses crisis to examine what people become when systems of control disappear. Both generate horror not for spectacle, but to provoke moral and philosophical questions. They ask readers to reflect on how quickly power can be taken, used unjustly, or violently enforced.
- Kidd, Sue Monk: The Secret Life of Bees, 2002, ~300pp
  This novel involves personal and social survival although in a more grounded context.
  - Both narratives place protagonists in situations where their previous structures of safety and identity have disappeared, and they must build new lives. They show how crisis strips away social masks, forcing characters to confront the best and worst in humanity. Yet both books contain a core belief that people can rebuild after devastation, whether personal or global.
- Rankin, Ian: The Naming of the Dead, 2006, ~500pp
  This is a detective novel with survival and crime elements set in difficult circumstances.
  - Both novels are deeply concerned with how people behave when the world around them becomes unstable. They explore difficult ethical decisions made under extreme conditions, showing how crises strip situations down to human judgment rather than rules.
- Steinbeck, John: Cannery Row, 1945, ~110pp
  This novel follows people surviving during difficult economic times.
  - Both novels examine how groups of people function when their stability is threatened. They depict modern systems as precarious, easily disrupted, and often indifferent to ordinary human needs. Humor becomes a survival mechanism, softening hardship and emphasizing resilience.
List of general discussion questions on Survival (pdf)
List of essay prompts on Survival (pdf)