“I am going to do something more old-fashioned than you perhaps expected. I am going to give advice.” Declared C.S. Lewis in his “The Inner Ring” speech, and did he ever give advice. Arguably, C.S. Lewis could be considered one of the most controversial and renowned writers in literary history. From “The Chronicles of Narnia” series to “Screwtape Letters”, Lewis changed the face of religion in the written word. He maintained this powerful communication skill throughout his speeches as well. “The Inner Ring” speech, given at the Memorial Lecture at King College, University of London, in 1944 challenges the very grounds of popularity and the human motives and desires behind chasing these goals. Spoken to youth, this speech obviously stands …show more content…
This speech took place during World War II and his first few statements clarify this. “…what part you ought to play in post-war reconstruction…” Lewis takes this speech an entirely different route than expected. He wears the fatherly figure in his speech, initiating advice for the younger generation. He introduces the fact that when advising others, most people use three figureheads: “the World, the Flesh, and the Devil”, but he decides to leave all but one alone. He uses “the World” as his starting grounds for the implication of his speech. He begins by giving examples of human knowledge of hierarchies or as he will refer to, “rings”. He quotes so simply the idea of these rings as, “some people are obviously in and some are obviously out….” This statement alone targets the younger crowd he preaches to. His Tolstoy exampleof a young soldier only aids in his objective audience. Lewis’s purpose for this speech is to encourage the youth to be their own “in” crowd. In being the best they can be, they are ultimately a part of the finest “in” crowd there is. He relates his argument back to the idea that each one of these listeners had felt the force of the Inner ring at this point in their lives - whether at home, work, school, or play. Lewis gets right to the point the audience this speech is intended …show more content…
“I must now make a distinction. I am not going to say that the existence of Inner Rings is an evil. It is certainly unavoidable.” He makes it extremely clear that nobody will be able to dodge the desires to be on the inside. Lewis states that by having these rings, it creates a healthy balance in society in which we involve ourselves in. But the evil evolves when we make becoming the “in” crowd our only goal. In a roundabout way Lewis says that forfeiting your love, desires, passions, and interests to get with the “popular” is when the true evil happens. Lewis’s second claim is as follows: “My main purpose in this address is simply to convince you that this desire is one of the great permanent mainsprings of human action.” Lewis again makes it clear that while these feelings and emotions are to him unavoidable, they are on the contrary quite controllable. He continues to back up this statement, by saying that all of his audience will at some point in their lives be confronted with the opportunity to sacrifice something to join the “it” crowd. “Over a drink or a cup of coffee, disguised as triviality and sandwiched between two jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting to know…..” It is in these moments that will truly define our future character in life. Lewis makes two powerful claims that allude that Inner rings are unavoidable, but you can control your reaction to these
In today’s society, we are exposed to countless amounts of compositions such as novels and films. However, when an individual reads a book or watches a movie, they subconsciously create connections to the plot as they relate it to their own lives. After the movie is completely watched one is able to sit down and ask himself, “Did I like that movie?” While an average person could give a simple yes or no answer, a professional in the field of reviewing movies and novels knows that the quality of the movie is directly related to its rhetorical effectiveness. If one were to attempt an analysis of a film or book’s rhetorical effectiveness, they would need to reference what is called the “Rhetoric Triangle” which is comprised of Ethos, Logos and Pathos. These three devices can be classified as tools for persuasion, thus, a great piece of work will have each of these tools. An excellent example of a novel that successfully incorporates each of these forms of rhetoric is titled The Lightning Thief and was written by Rick Riordan and published in 2005. Riordan made this book so successful through his vivid portrayal of a Greek mythological world hiding within reality all across America. The written genre of The Lightning Thief provided the foundation for Chris Columbus to create film adaptation of the novel in 2010. Chris Columbus’ film representation of the novel The Lightning Thief (2005), while proving to be disappointing in regards to the plot when compared to the novel, both representations were able to clearly create connections to Aristotle’s three ingredients for persuasion: Ethos, Logos and Pathos.
Lanford Wilson’s The Rimers of Eldritch is a unique play which uses a lack of continuity between space and time to reveal a confusing and twisted story about a dark Midwestern town and its intriguing residents. From the very beginning, the play is set around the trial of a mysterious guilty party, and surrounded and interrupted by subplots that reveal the characters of Eldritch.
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern us.
Aslan is the King of Narnia. Lewis tries to resist any recognition that Aslan is Jesus Christ. When readi...
He was not alone, many of his peers felt the same drive. John Lewis quotes, “Jim Lawson conveyed the urgency of developing our philosophy, our discipline, our understanding. His words liberated me. I thought, this is it… This is the way out.” John Lewis’s calling becomes clear, his new sense of purpose is what drives his motivations now. This drive is, in part, because he recognizes his own power to change his world. He also realizes that he does not have to accept the way life he was born into. This rejection is what liberates him, he sees the potential of what his world can be and this potential is recognized within his
· Wood, Ralph C. "Traveling the one road: The Lord of the Rings as a "pre-Christian" classic." The Christian Century Feb. 93: 208(4).
As children, we are often told stories, some of which may have practical value in the sense of providing young minds with lessons and morals for the future, whereas some stories create a notion of creativity and imagination in the child. In Karen Armstrong’s piece, “Homo Religiosus”, a discussion of something similar to the topic of storytelling could translate to the realm of religion. Armstrong defines religion as a, “matter of doing rather than thinking” (17) which she describes using an example in which adolescent boys in ancient religions, who were not given the time to “find themselves” but rather forced into hunting animals which ultimately prepares these boys to be able to die for their people, were made into men by the process of doing.
Smith and Bradford use religion as a literary tool to persuade the reader towards their own interests. There are similarities and differences in the motivation to use religion by these two authors, yet the use is still prevalent in their writings. The reasons for these similarities and differences are found in the greater interest of each individual author.
Have you ever wanted to free yourself from the terrors and troublesome times of modern society and escape to a magical place? Clive Staples Lewis, or C.S. Lewis as he is better known, created such a place, in his extremely popular children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia. In these books, Lewis has an underlying message about Christianity. He represents four key aspects of Christianity in this series: Christ and God, evil in the world, and faith.
After his conversion, C.S. Lewis' writings became less modernistic. Many of his most famous writings, such as Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia series contain his Christian worldview (Stewart 1), which was completely opposite of the mode...
...e, is the end; Despite all the odds Lewis highlighted important truths of Christian faith through the story of a demon who is not good at being a demon. Wormwood’s helper shows us those truths in thirty-one irrational letters. A message of light brought forth through darkness.
The analogy breaks down messages that are revealed in the Bible in order for the average person to understand what it being said, similar to how Jesus used parables to explain his teachings to mass audiences. The people listening to Jesus’ sermons weren’t very educated and had little prior knowledge about who Jesus was. He had to make his sermons relatable to the audience, just as C.S. Lewis does with his readers. Within the novel, Lewis also only covers what he considered the “basic teaching of orthodox Christianity.” Many theologists either focused on details that were unimportant to a new believer, or they wrote in ways that were difficult for the average person to understand. Lewis did not see himself as educated enough to provide a detailed theological and historical explanation of the doctrines that he discusses, but because of the lack of simplicity in religious works of literature, he strove to educate people on the basic outline of Christian beliefs (Mueller). Lewis explained his purpose for writing Mere Christianity in an interesting way,
C.S. Lewis uses a secondary world, Narnia, to convey complex, thought-provoking messages to readers of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This paper examines the way a selection of Narnia's key characteristics prompt debates over logic and faith, comment on the nature of spiritual and metaphysical journeys, allow readers to broaden their conception of their own capabilities, encourage new reflection on the story of Christ and help to clarify conceptions of good and evil.
C.S. Lewis was the 20th century’s most popular proponent of faith based on reason. As a child, he created an imaginary world where personified animals came to life, and later, he wrote the book, Chronicles of Narnia. How did he transform from a boy fascinated with anthropomorphic animals into a man of immense faith? His transformation to the Christian religion happened as his fame began to flourish. People wrote him, asking him about his claims about the truth of Christianity (Belmonte, Kevin). As I attended the drama of Freud’s Last Session, I was engrossed into the plot of the play and was constantly thinking about how it pertained to the objectives of the World Literature class. I not only connected the content of the play to its context, but I also reached out to apply the context to a discussion on a broader scale. I then discovered why the context of literature is imperative for true understanding of the w...
The Chronicles of Narnia are veritably the most popular writings of C.S. Lewis. They are known as children’s fantasy literature, and have found favor in older students and adults alike, even many Christian theologians enjoy these stories from Lewis; for there are many spiritual truths that one can gleam from them, if familiar with the Bible. However, having said this, it is noteworthy to say that Lewis did not scribe these Chronicles for allegorical didactics of the Christian faith, but wrote them in such a well-knit fashion that young readers might understand Christian doctrine through captivating fantasy and thus gain an appreciation for it. With this in mind, and in the interest of this assignment, the purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyze one of the many doctrines of the Christian faith from The Lion, The Witch, And, The Wardrobe (LWW), namely, temptation and how Lewis illustrates it through an individual character, Edmund.