The Seven Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis have, in their short life, become a classic on library and literature shelves for both young and old alike. The first of the seven books was recently made into a popular TV movie a couple of years ago entitled, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
The chronicles are, at heart, adventure stories. They record the marvelous and often scary episodes of a small group of youngsters who enter the mystical world of Narnia when they walk through a secret doorway in a little used wardrobe in one of their homes.
Among other things, I think the chronicles help children (and adults) understand the fundamental battle in life between good and evil. Good is represented by a great lion named Aslan, an archetype
of the resurrected Christ. In the land of Narnia, evil shows up in many familiar guises of wicked witches, horrible beasts, and dark dwarfs.
The last of the seven books is appropriately entitled, The Last Battle (Revelation?). In this chronicle, the evil characters are Narnian dwarfs. They are dark and gloomy folk, with sneering grins, who distrust the whole world. The basic issue is that they have chosen to live in darkness, refusing to see the good around them, refusing to believe that Aslan can bring God's light into their lives and world. So, they live in misery, squalor, and self-imposed darkness.
Near the end of the story, some of the children who follow Aslan go out into a field where the dwarfs live. They want to make friends; they want to help them see the light and the beauty of the world which surrounds them.
When they arrived, they noticed that the dwarfs have a very odd look and were huddled together in a circle facing inward, paying attention to nothing. As the children drew near, they were aware that the dwarfs couldn't see them. "Where are you ?" asks one of the children. "We're in here you bone-head," said Diggle the dwarf, "in this pitch-black, poky, smelly little hole of a stable."
"Are you blind?" asks another child. "No," respond the dwarfs, "we're here in the dark where no one can see."
"But it isn't dark, you poor dwarfs," says Lucy, "look up, look round, can't you see the sky and flowers - can't you see me?" Then Lucy bends over, picks some wild violets, and says, "perhaps you can smell these.
Since the beginning of man’s first ability to articulate his thoughts into words, he began traditions that exceeded all written text. These traditions included passing on stories from one generation to the next with the hopes of conveying some hidden moral principle to our children in a memorable and entertaining fashion. As society has progressed and developed over the years, and as thoughts became words, words turned into stories, and stories in some cases. became novels. In modern life, novels can be transformed using symbolism and archetypes through the art of film making. In the film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, just before Lucy’s first discovery of the magical land of Narnia, she is seen opening the door of a beautiful wardrobe. As the door opens three white marbles roll out, symbolizing the path of good, the free will of mankind, and evil. Through the use of symbolism, most predominately the three white marbles, the film portrays the choice of all humans regarding whether to follow the path of the free will of mankind by choosing to become more Christ-like, or to follow the wicked and be shrouded in darkness.
C.S Lewis is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Warrdrobe. Lewis was born on November 29, 1898, in Belfast, Ireland. He was born Clive Staples Lewis to Flora August Hamilton Lewis and Albert J. Lewis. Lewis’s mother passed away when he was on ten years old. After his mother died he went on to get his pre-college education at boarding schools and he also received help from a tutor. Lewis served in World War I with the English Army, but unfortunately was sent home when he was wounded. Lewis was a graduate of Oxford University with a focus on classic philosophy and literature. As a child, he was disappointed with the Christian faith, but when he became older he found himself embracing Christianity. During World War II, he gave popular radio broadcasts on Christianity and they won many converts. Lewis’ speeches were collected in Mere Christianity. In the year of 1954, C.S. Lewis joined the staff of Cambridge University as a literature professor. He met an English teacher by the name of Joy Gresham and in 1956 they married each other and became a happily married family. The two were joyful during their marriage; unfortunately in 1960, the wife became ill with cancer died. Lewis began publishing his works in the mid- 1920s. Lewis started to publish The Chronicles of Narnia during the 1950s. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first in the seven book series to be released. This was the story of four siblings who discovered a wardrobe with a magical land in the back of it (“Clives…”). In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis describes Aslan, Edmund, and Lucy.
C.S. Lewis created a story of a fictional world called Narnia that was inside of a wardrobe. There were four siblings who found this world, once inside they saw numerous creatures like witches and centaurs that were symbols for something bigger. C. S. Lewis uses Christian symbolism in The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe through the characters of Aslan, Edmund, and the White Witch.
Downing, David C. Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Few authors have been able to demonstrate the incredible scope of different genres that Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, wrote in his career. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing his name is the mythical land of Narnia. Narnia is the fictional world that the widely popular series “The Chronicles of Narnia” takes place in. This series, enjoyed by adults and children alike, hosts talking animals, a God-like lion, an ice queen bearing many similarities to the Devil, and many other things. This series, like most of Lewis’ other works, is essentially a metaphor for the story of the Gospel as well as lessons for living a Christian life. In much of his writing, Lewis made an excellent and relatable argument for Christianity by his ability to write captivating stories relating to many aspects of Christian life.
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.
It is regular learning that C. S. Lewis is a Christian and much, if not every, of hello there composing is attached to Christianity or philosophy in some structure or way. A regular response to C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia is one of a Christian nature. Lewis is undoubtedly very purposeful in his utilization of imagery in Narnia. What is maybe not as normally known, on the other hand, it is safe to say that is, that the same kind of imagery is utilized as a part of a comparable book arrangement. This arrangement is the well known Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling.
J.R.R Tolkien’s work of fiction The Lord of the Rings, have with the advent of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation brought the series to newfound heights of fame. As with many works of it’s kind, The Lord of the Rings depicts a battle between good and evil, with the main characters in the books striving to thwart evil’s plan. In many other works, the author’s personal belief system or worldview drives the narrative, with the message being paramount and the characters the vehicles of conveyance for the point of the story. C.S Lewis, a friend and contemporary of Tolkien’s, is a prime example of this. Lewis’ popular series The Chronicles of Narnia is an allegorical work, teaching Christian principles through the use of fiction. While raised as a Catholic himself, Tolkien does not explicitly promote his religious background, nor does he engage in allegory. However, Tolkien’s views of morality can be found throughout the work, specifically in the way in which evil is portrayed, the use of power and moral freedom of choice. Randel Helms writes in his book, Tolkien’s World, “Tolkien’s particular myth parallels his Christianity, … positioning a malevolent and corrupting outside influence, spiritual and probably eternal, against which man is doomed to fight, but which he has no hope of conquering” (67).
the evil lying within themselves. The evil of this book is the evil created by
The Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful to read whether one be six or thirty-six; they relate to childhood as well as life in a general sense. While the Chronicles tell the story of an imaginary land full of talking animals and heroic princes/princesses, I tend to look further into it in order to grasp the symbolism and relation to life. Symbolism plays an important role in the chronicles by being the background and foundation of a character. I get the impression that in some ways the characters were constructed around their symbolic purpose, and not the opposite way.
Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, based off of the novel written by C.S. Lewis, Edmund
The Narnia Chronicles have already established themselves as timeless works of literature. They appeal to both the atheists and the God-fearing, to both the uneducated and to scholars; to children and adults. An understanding of the Biblical allegory in these books is not essential to their appreciation. A critical analysis of these works, however, does allow the reader to more fully appreciate Lewis' unique gift to simplify complex narratives and craft beautiful children's fantasies. This, in turn, allows the reader to gain both a deeper understanding of Lewis as a skilled creative writer, and a deeper satisfaction of his art. To be able to appreciate C.S. Lewis as such an artisan can only add to one's enjoyment of his works.
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.
In the Lion the Witch and Wardrobe, good vs. evil is teaching children the right from wrong in this book. Lewis uses the archetypes hero and villain very good throughout his novel to also portray right from wrong. His use of archetype the hero reminds readers that Aslan is the hero in his novel. He shows this by the many ways Aslan rescues and saves his people all throughout the novel. His use of archetype villain shows the readers that the White Witch is the villain in his
Nowadays, children books are full field with morals and lesson to teach children how to behave and react in real life situations. A classic subject that teaches children is the rivalry between good and bad, where good defeats bad after a battle. An example of a children novel that explores in different ways the good versus the bad is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written by C.S Lewis. The author of this novel uses literary elements to demonstrate the idea of good and evil, an example of which would be characterisation. Aslan and the White Witch embody the characteristics of the good and the evil, two of which are their physical and psychological descriptions and their actions in the novel.