The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by Lewis - Book Report/Review Example

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by Lewis The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe written by C.S. Lewis is fantasy novel that managed to capture the attention its intended reader of ages 4-8. The book which was published in 1950 has since them been published in more than 46 foreign languages. Traits of the main characters In the novel, Edmund is seen as being greedy for power and material wealth. When Edmund meets the witch, she convinces him to be silent about what he had seen after which he was required to bring his siblings along with him next time. The witch was successful in achieving this just by promising Edmund power and continuous supply of Turkish Delight (Downing 15). “He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food”, (Lewis 8.61). Because of his greed for wealth and power, Edmund accepted to betrays his siblings. The Beaver reveals this by stating that "Hes gone to her, to the White Witch. He has betrayed us all", (Lewis 8.53). He reveals who Lucy is so that she could be kidnapped in accordance to the witch’s orders which applied to all strangers despite knowing that the witch was evil. Edmund is coward because he accepts to cooperate with the witch just because she threatened him with words. In addition to cowardice, Edmund is vulnerable because apart from being silenced by threats from the witch, Edmund succumbs to her trap because of her smooth talking. Contrary to the coward Edmund, Lucy the youngest Pevensie child is courageous and adventurous. When she met Tumnus in Narnia, she become so free with him and asks a lot of questions concerning Narnia and the witch (Downing 14). Most children of her age would not have been courageous enough to do this. Despite being overtaken by individualism and greed, Edmund is also remorseful. Later on, he repented of his actions and even goes to an extent of helping Aslan and the Narnians to defeat the witch. In the novel, Susan and Peter are the doubting Thomases. They could not believe in Lucy until they went to Narnia. When Lucy explains her experience, Susan teased her by asking if she never fell asleep in the wardrobe while Peter dismissed her claims. Aslan, the lion, who is the actual leader of Narnia, is selfless and a symbol of what true leadership entails. He accepts to die just to spare the life of Edmund. "All shall be done," said Aslan. "But it may be harder than you think." And then he was silent again for some time. Up to that moment Lucy had been thinking how royal and strong and peaceful his face looked; now it suddenly came into her head that he looked sad as well. (Lewis 12.21-22). In accepting to die, Aslan symbolized Jesus. “Aslan is a picture of Jesus Himself - One who was without sin, who would sacrifice Himself for all”, (Tracts 1). After his resurrection, Aslan fights with all his might to save the Pevensie children and the citizens of Narnia to overcome the witch and hence availing for them freedom from oppression. This makes him to be a good symbol of salvation and hope in the novel. He is also forgiving because despite Edmund having acted with betrayal, Aslan still goes ahead to loose his life just to rescue him. The witch, who is the self-proclaimed queen of Narnia, is portrayed as a being a wicked tyrannical leader who uses magic powers to gain control over her subjects and put off her opponents. She symbolizes the powers of evil or Lucifer in the bible according to (Selby para 1) She also uses her evil power to make the conditions in Narnia winter always as Tumnus revealed to Lucy that “it is always winter in Narnia…” (Lewis 10). Just like the Lion, Tumnus is selfless and sympathetic. When Lucy arrives in Narnia, he risks to facing the wrath of the witch by refusing kidnap Lucy and hand her over to the witch. The frightened Lucy asked Tumnus “are you going to kidnap me?” in response Tumnus said, “No!” (Lewis 6). Use of symbols According to Tracts (para 1) symbols are used to convey a message. The main symbols used in the novel are the witch, the lion and Father Christmas. In the novel, the witch has been used to represent the devil who is a source of wickedness in the society (Tracts para 1). This includes wicked people in the society who are constantly a danger to the lives of other people. Such kind of people, goodness is not part of their lifestyle and so they do not wish others good. Instead, they find pleasure in making others suffer. The lion is a symbol of goodness, hope and salvation. This is seen where the lion accepts to die to save the Kingdom for the benefit of all members of the society. “…sacrificial death has broken the curse forever. Edmund repents, and returns to following Aslan the King, just as we may repent and find restoration” (Tracts para 5). His resurrection became a source of hope for victory for the Pevensie children and the citizens of Narnia who could have been overpowered by the witch. Father Christmas is symbol of a new dawn. His presents to peter, Lucy and Susan were meant to help them overcome the witch. It is this victory that marks the start of a new phase of Christmas celebrations in Narnia and an end of the torturous winter. Main themes Leadership: good leadership verses bad leadership By turning her opponents to stones, the witch was actually a representation of bad leaders who despite their evil characters do not want any kind of correction or opposition. They ensure that there is no room for democracy in their society by severely punishing those who challenge her stand on various matters even if they are wrong. For example, Tumnus was on the right by refusing to hand over Lucy to the witch. However, she turned him to a stone because it was against her evil order of kidnapping all strangers in Narnia. They also create an atmosphere of fear in the society that Tumnus reveals by telling Lucy “even some of the trees are her spies’ (Lewis 11) The contrary to this the self-proclaimed tyrannical witch is the lion who is a leader of the people chosen by the people for the people. He is a representation of how true leaders, chosen democratically should be, that is, at the service and defense of the people. Though being a leader, he humbles himself to the point of loosing his life for the sake of a common man. This shows that true leadership should be accompanied by selflessness and not selfishness. According to Huck (14), such a simple representation of weighty themes is required for novels for young children. Greed and selfishness In the novel, Edmund and the witch are the main characters associated with greed. The witch out of greed for power takes over the leadership of Narnia as a self-proclaimed leader. She goes ahead to employ evil powers in maintaining this position including turning her challengers others to stones. As a result of greed for wealth and power, Edmund accepted to betray his siblings to the witch. The two characters are also associated with selfishness. They decide to enjoy themselves at the expanse of the rest. Edmund’s greed for wealth satisfied his appetite alone. Man is led away by the enticements of this world and becomes selfish and fallen from the standards of Christ. Because of his betrayal, he has also been compared to Judas of the New Testament and Adam in the Garden of Eden (Selby par 2) Courage and cowardice Cowardice in the novel is seen when Edmund decided to side with the witch just because he was threatened. The novel goes ahead to reveal the results of keeping silent about evil in the society as Edmund did. He suffered in the end and maybe he would have lost his life if not for the lion to rescue him. The people of Narnia and the Pevensie children are courageous. They all teamed up to fight the evil witch and finally, they succeeded with the help of the lion as noted by Sammons (25). Though he was later turned into a stone, Tumnus was courageous enough to defy the orders of the wicked queen so as to safe Lucy’s life. Betrayal and effects of evil company Edmund is a good traitor in the novel. He betrays Tumnus who was ready to hide Lucy so as to secure her from the evil witch. In this way, he was directly exposing Tumnus to the wrath of the witch for judges of disobedience (Schakel 15). Finally, this betrayal makes Tumnus to be turned into a stone by the witch. The fact that he disclosed the identity of his siblings supports the point that Edmund was a traitor. According to Schakel (3) the themes in children’s literature works should be as simple and straight forward as possible. In this novel, the theme of the effects of evil company comes out when Edmund suffers because of cooperating with the witch. He almost lost hid life just because of this. The theme brought out here is applicable to the lives of the indebted audience because it teaches such a direct lesson. Every work of literature for example a novel should have some relevance and importance to the society. This relevance is usually in terms of lessons learned and values or morals communicated. This novel is of good literature rating because it possesses these qualities for example, the novel teaches that good must always overcome evil however long it takes. For example in the story, the lion dies and the witch felt she had won only for the lion to resurrect and overthrow her. This became an end of her oppressive rule over Narnia (Veith 12). To the indented audience, this novel caries a lesson applicable to their every day lives. This story presents a child who wandered into the wardrobe and passed through it to a place she was not familiar with without the company of her parents or older siblings (Ryken and Mead 13). Eventually she landed in a situation that compromised her life. The story serves as a warning to young children especially of ages 8 and below who are fond of wandering around estates without the guidance of their parents or any other familiar older person. Such an act really endangers them because they could find themselves in the hands of wicked people who could hurt or even kill them. Though the novel was published in 1950, this literature work has long lasting relevance even in the current in the human society. For example the author has used the witch to bring out the state of leadership in reference to societies ruled by self-proclaimed leaders. The author illustrates that such kinds of leaders are tyrannical, using dictatorship to rule instead of being democratic. In such a case they do not quality to be called leader but rulers as opposed to the lion who is truly a leader. In the current world, we still find such kind of rulers and basing on the story, we can only expect such a bad ending for such people if they do not change. This literature work is suitable for its intended audience due to the inclusion of animal characters. Children at the ages 4-8 are at a very adventurous stage in life which includes discovering various animals and their characters. Therefore the inclusion of animal characters in the novel is important for capturing and sustaining the attention of the children. It is also of much academic help to the children as it enriches their vocabulary with animal names while keeping thr minds in action. They will have a task of fantasizing about the whole scenery. For example the witch, the Lion, the land of Narnia, the final battle that led to overpowering of the witch and crowning of the children (Perry, Popplewell, Henley, Adamson, Ford, Wooten, Taylor, Berger, Wright, and Gresham 117). The author made a good choice of character in his work. The story would have not found a place in the children’s world had it not been that young children formed a good percentage of human characters. It is also excellent that the author chose lion as the main animal character because it is known to be active, powerful and courageous unlike the coward hyena or the clumsy hippo. This puts the intended readers in a high mood because they expect something lively and interesting. The picture at the cover page is enough to generate curiosity among children about the novel. This makes it a good literature work due to the ability to capture and sustain the attention of its reader, and satisfy the intended audience. The ability to bring about cross boundary satisfaction is a major characteristic of a good literature work. The author has been able to achieve this by including older people as part of the human character team for example the professor. This makes the novel to find a place in the reading tables of children as well as adults. The author has also included themes that appeal to adults for example leadership. Though children will generalise the leaders as bad and good, adults will be able to identity them as tyrannical or democratic. They will then apply the scenario and lessons learned to the existing leadership in their society and across the world. Works Cited Downing, David. Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2005. Print. Huck, Charlotte. Childrens Literature in the Elementary School, 7th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2001. Print. Lewis Clive. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Dramatic Publishing. 1989. Perry Moore; Popplewell Anna, Henley Georgie, Adamson Andrew, Ford Roger, Wooten Ben, Taylor Richard , Berger Howard, Wright Dean, and Gresham Douglas. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - The Official Illustrated Movie Companion. Harpercollins. 2005. Print. pp. 104–113. Schakel, Peter. Imagination and the arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and other worlds. University of Missouri Press. 2002. Print. Selby Jonathan. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Symbolism and meanin. nd. 7 April, 2011. Web. http://www.jonathanselby.com/Narnia.html Ryken, Leland and Mead, Marjorie. A Readers Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewiss Classic Story. London: InterVarsity Press. 2005. Print. Sammons, Martha. A Guide Through Narnia. Wheaton, Illinois: Harold Shaw Publishers. 1979. Print. Tracts. Do you know the real meaning behind the book by CS Lewis, the Lion the witch and the wardrobe? nd. 7 April, 2011. Web. http://www.tracts.com/Aslan.pdf Veith, Gene The Soul of Prince Caspian: Exploring Spiritual Truth in the Land of Narnia. David Cook. 2008. Print. pp.  Read More