The Day of the Triffids

Bill recalls his childhood in south London. His father was an expert at mathematics and hoped Bill would follow suit. Bill, however, was not only horrible at math but did not know what he wanted to be in life—until the triffid plant arrived. He became so obsessed with the plant, which is venomous, capable of walking, and carnivorous—that he began a career in the growing triffid industry. He actually ended up in the hospital because of a triffid sting. 

Bill explains that, according to most, nonsensical speculation about triffids, people believe they came as a harbinger of something worse, or they were “spontaneously generated.” He does not believe that they are from space, as others posit. Having worked with them for so long, Bill believes triffids are the result of biological experimentation. 

In truth, the triffids’ true origin is not known—mostly due to the world’s political makeup at the time: “The world we lived in was wide, and most of it was open to us with little trouble” (21). Bill describes the world as a utopia with open borders. In time, however, food resources became an issue with the growing population, so much so that the once-small subsect of people who were tired of things staying the same grew. The world soon placed satellite weaponry in orbit, which created an arms race, and governments soon concerned themselves with diverting the public’s attention away from the satellites. 

Bill mentions a man named Umberto Christoforo Palanguez. He was a pilot, but he gained notoriety when he produced a bottle of triffid oil that worked far better than any edible oil on the market. A company called Artic & European Fish Oil demanded more from Umberto, who refused. He told them it came from secretive Russia, but he could procure more for a large sum of money. However, Umberto’s plane exploded mid-flight, and his cargo—triffid seeds—scattered in the air and were carried around the globe.

Bill’s first experience with triffids involved an adolescent triffid in his parents’ yard. Triffids have a stalk, a woody bole, and “three small, bare sticks which grew straight up beside the stem” (25). They also have “leathery green leaves” (25) and a conical, fern-like formation at the top of their stem. They were popping up more frequently, but no one gave them much attention. But then one picked up its stem and began walking, shocking the world. When the media began reporting on the walking plants, Bill rushed home to help his triffid walk and was stung in the process. Soon the media gave them the name “triffid.” 

Excitement was soon cut short, however, when attacks and deaths from triffids were reported from all over the world. Triffids sting their prey with a stinger that comes from the conical top, some of which reach 10 feet long. The public began killing triffids on sight, until someone reasoned that the stingers could just be removed. In time, people began keeping docked, harmless triffids in their gardens as play toys for children. 

Triffids were soon farmed for their oil on a large scale, which is how Bill began working with them. He obtained a job at Artic & European Fish Oil to study them and worked with Walter Lucknor, a triffid expert. Many people believed Walter was crazy because he believed triffids communicated with one another, possibly with the three stalks they rattled incessantly. Walter maintained triffids were intelligent, which no one at the time believed: “Granted that they do have intelligence; then that would leave us with only one important superiority—sight. We can see, and they can’t” (33). For Walter, triffids would be the superior species if humankind were crippled by something like blindness.

While on a routine inspection of the triffids, Bill was injured. Though he always wore protective gear, the sting was so hard that some of the poison entered his eyes. Walter decontaminated Bill before the poison could take its toll—plus, Bill had some immunity due to his childhood stinging—but he was sent to the hospital to determine if his eyesight could be saved.

Despite not having a plan, Bill sets out for London: “To this day I cannot say quite why. Perhaps it was an instinct to seek familiar places, or the feeling that if there were authority anywhere it must be somewhere in that direction” (37). Though hungry, his code of ethics makes it hard to just take food from one of the many looted and/or open, empty stores. Despite the chaos, he is not “yet ready to admit […] that things had changed in any fundamental way” (37). He finally enters an already damaged store and leaves money on the counter after taking some food. Bill then walks across the street and has his meal in a quaint garden. While eating, he hears a woeful young voice singing with an accompanying piano.

Bill visits popular city hubs like Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, where people mull about feebly and crash into one another. While on his way to Piccadilly, he meets a blind man who appears almost self-righteous after Bill explains that the entire world is blind. He notes a few vivid scenes, such a blind man instructing a woman’s child, who can see, to find food for them both. The woman does not think it right to steal, though the man tries to convince her that this is now their lot in life. Another scene, with a mob of drunken men, takes place, and Bill is surprised to find a man who can see is leading the group. The man apparently promised the group alcohol and women, so he grabs a frightened blind girl and hands her to one of the men. Bill rushes to intervene but is knocked out by the sighted man, who then leads the group to another bar. 

When Bill comes to, he is thankful that worse harm did not come to him, then reasons that women who get corralled by the drunken group will be more likely to survive than if they were alone. He thinks, “Perhaps it had needed that blow to drive it home. Now I came face to face with the fact that my existence simply had no focus any longer” (43). With a newfound sense of reality—and morality—Bill is thankful that he has no attachments, as his family died long ago, and continues his journey.

Bill meets more people out in the streets. He wonders if hunger is driving them out, and he watches hesitantly as they collide and moan while searching for food and help. 

I felt that I ought to be showing these people where to find food. But should I? […] One might collect a small party and keep it alive somehow for an uncertain length of time—but who was to be taken and who left? No obviously right course presented itself however I tried to look at it (44).

Despite feeling uneasy at not helping, Bill reasons people will soon descend into desperation and the fact that he can see might put him in danger. Suddenly, a gut-wrenching scream stops everyone nearby in their tracks. Bill rushes toward the sound to find a girl who can see being beaten by a blind man. He tied the girl to him and is beating her with a rod. Despite the man’s burliness and anger, Bill knocks him over and releases the girl. The two flee as the man stumbles away.

Bill breaks into a saloon and carries the woman in. He gives her a drink, which brings her back to her senses, and she is overjoyed that he can also see. As she recovers, he notes that she is a nicely dressed, attractive young woman. Her name is Josella Playton, and she apologizes for how he found her.

Josella then relates her story. She was at a party and got severely drunk, so she instructed the house staff not to interrupt her. She slept right through the comet but was awakened by her father calling out to her. He decried temporary blindness and sent her to get the doctor. Josella began noticing that none of the servants were around, and things in town as she went for the doctor confirmed that something catastrophic had taken place. Her car got a flat tire, and while searching for help, she was waylaid by the burly man who tethered her to him so she could find him food.

Josella intends to find a doctor, return home, and help her father, and Bill asks to accompany her. Bill believes it is better to travel with a companion: “The future seemed to me at that time a choice between a lonely existence, always in fear of capture, or of gathering together a selected group which we could rely on to protect us from other groups” (50).

Bill and Josella steal a car and drive to her house. They spot groups of escaped triffids along the way but are otherwise elated at being on the open road and away from the city. At Josella’s house, she sees a caretaker dead on the ground and rushes toward the man. Bill stops her, realizing that a triffid is lurking nearby. There are other triffids, and one strikes Bill, though it does not kill him. Bill knocks the triffid down and stomps on it, reasoning that the triffid had no poison left because it had been stinging a lot more than usual. 

The pair finds another dead servant, then heads inside. However, a tall triffid blocks their entrance into a room, so they return outside and peer into the room’s window. They see Josella’s father, dead. Bill notices even more triffids, so they find a car and quickly enter it. He hopes Josella does not want to bury her father because dealing with the triffids will be tricky. He also remembers Walter’s words about how triffids would be superior to humans if the latter lost their sight; the coincidence makes him uneasy. Josella, crying, wants Bill to drive away hurriedly, so they leave the dead behind and flee toward London.

As Bill and Josella head back into town, a horrible sight arrests them: a large group of blind people being herded by triffids. Realizing they will be overrun by the crowd, they ditch the car, which is found quickly by those fleeing and causes violence to break out. Bill and Josella then head to Clerkenwell, an abandoned company, where Bill secures triffid weaponry. They settle on a place to hunker down and decide to secure food later. They find a lavish apartment, grander in fact that anything Bill has ever seen. 

When they leave to find clothing and food, they see a young, blind couple in the hall. The young man is supposedly leading the girl to safety; however, he opens a window, tells her he loves her, and then throws them both to their death. In light of these atrocities, Bill tells himself, “You’ve got to grow a hide […] It’s either that or stay permanently drunk” (61).

Bill and Josella go into town to find clothes and then meet up at the apartment for dinner. To Bill’s surprise, Josella dons a gorgeous dress. She wonders if it is a bit showy, but Bill understands that she wants to feel nice for at least one night before continuing with their uncertain existence. As they eat and ruminate on just how widespread the catastrophe is, Josella admits that she wrote an infamous book, Sex is My Adventure, about women’s independence regarding their sexuality. She wrote the book so she would not have to rely on her father’s money. Though she moved out and the book sold well, her newfound notoriety caused her to regret writing it.

After dinner, they try to plan next steps. Both agree that cities will soon be filled with disease, so they consider sparsely populated places in the country. They will fill up on provisions the next morning, then drive to safety. Later, Josella wakes Bill up with interesting news: there is a bright beacon of light shining in the distance. Using a nail file, Bill marks the window to indicate the direction of the beam. Though hopeful, he knows it might be a trap and thinks it would be too dangerous to try and find the source at night. Josella begins crying, and Bill comforts her. They fall asleep together, with Bill recalling the sad song he heard while eating in the garden.