The Novel of Spiritual Education
I found this book, which is the sort of “first” within the “Chronicles of Narnia” series to be a fun read. It was light hearted and innocent yet laden with a lot of allegorical subtext that were blatantly presented to the viewer. The premise of the novel is that there is a magical world that has an entryway through the doorway of a wardrobe, which happens to be found by one Lucy Pevensie, one day when her and her brothers and sisters were playing hide and seek. In this mystical world, there has been an eternal winter, a winter that has lasted forever with no signs of Christmas, caused by the White witch of Narnia. According to the Narnia prophecy, peace and harmony would only reign again in Narnia when two daughters of eve and two sons of Adam, rule over the kingdom yet again. So the story already has us delving into it knowing full well whom the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are and that these kids are destined to bring forth a complete change in Narnia, for the better. From the start of the book you can see one main theme that helps tie it into the overall religious allegory and that is Edmund’s temptation by the white queen. Edmund’s temptation and subsequent betrayal all stems from a very miniscule proposition and that is the fact that the white queen has offered him Turkish delight in exchange for his brother’s and sisters’ whereabouts. His green and incessant want of more Turkish delight turns Edmund down the wrong path, even though in his heart he knows he is wrong, and so he lies to his siblings and then ultimately betrays their plans to the white witch. Edmund then stands as kind of the original temptation of man, in this world or just as the temptation of man in general. It seems as though C.S. Lewis was pointing out how it could be a very miniscule thing that one wouldn’t believe would be enough to betray those closest to you, but sometimes that’s really all it takes. He makes the point with Edmund that temptation is a powerful thing and though you may realize that what you are doing isn’t right we often times block out that voice that tells us reason. He also uses Edmund as an example of how much better off we are when we ask for forgiveness once we have sinned. Aslan, the Jesus figure in this novel, saves Edmund, and upon doing so has a private talk with him, that even we, as the reader, are unaware what it is about and afterwards Aslan responds by telling his siblings not to harp on it because all is forgiven. I guess that kind of has to do with the way C.S. Lewis perceives a relationship with the Christ figure in religion. It’s as though he were saying, yes you have messed up but once you ask forgiveness that is between you and God alone, and once you have asked for forgiveness and changed your ways then all is well and he won’t “harp” on it and doesn’t expect you or anyone else to as well. The bigger picture in this story is basically that everything is a religious metaphor; Edmund is just one character that I find interesting within the whole story because he is one of the most clearly flawed characters. Someone could probably write forever about the resurrection of Aslan and how that relates to the rise of Jesus Christ and the small intricacies of the novel but for me, watching Edmund’s character was the most fascinating bit from that novel. Overall it was a fun read, and the way it’s written reminds me a lot of Enid Blyton.
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