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Book Review
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Review For The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe follows the story of four English children by the names of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy as they venture into the secret country of Narnia. After some rather unfortunate events including Edmund's capture and learning that the culprit is the White Witch who has cast Narnia under a spell that has put it in an everlasting winter in which Christmas never comes, the three must reach the mighty lion, Aslan, who has returned to the magical country after hundreds of years, in order to save their brother from the harm he has inflicted upon himself. After the witch clearly states that by the "Deep Magic" Edmund belongs to her, Aslan makes an unexpected bargain with her.
Since I have grown up listening to Bible stories, the Biblical influence in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was highly apparent to me. C.S. Lewis did an excellent job portraying Aslan as the son of God. He included his alternate personality, the lion. He added in the resurrection, the multiplying of the food he fed the Narnians with, his return as king, deceiving the White Witch, who symbolized Satan, by leading her to think she had defeated him, and referring to the children as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.
I liked that even though this novel was clearly written with Christian beliefs in mind, the mythical aspect and well written storyline allowed it to be enjoyable for a person of any belief. The author does not openly tell the audience about the chain of events in the Bible but instead implies the underlying meaning with obvious allusions. The only feature I didn't like about the story was that at certain points, the details almost seemed too unbelievable where the hyperboles were too much. For example, it states that when Mr. Tumnus is using Lucy's handkerchief, he literally has to wring it out from his tears soaking the fabric. I realize that this is a children's book, but in my opinion, the writing has to be realistic to an extent even in fantasy genres.
The author's writing style was particularly unique to me. The Chronicles of Narnia is a novel targeted towards children, yet it easily holds the attention of teenagers and adults alike. The frequent input of the narrator commenting on self relations throughout the novel and often switching to second person to focus the attention on the reader added the voice of an adult telling this story to young children. Although he avoids in depth detail on battle scenes and touchy topics with the younger audience in mind, his educated diction and thrilling plot draws in older readers. I found the book enjoyable, appropriate, and beautifully written and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys spiritual or fantasy genres.
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Plot Line
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Exposition
Narnia follows the adventure of four children who are sent from their home in London due to dangerous events in the war to live with an old professor. The professor resides in a historic mansion in the middle of nowhere with mountains and woods surrounding the house. It consists of endless corridors and countless rooms to explore. He has three servants: Ivy, Margaret, and Betty, and one housekeeper, Mrs. Macready, who doesn't particularly like children. It's stated that Lucy is the youngest, Edmund is the second youngest, Susan is the second oldest, and Peter is the oldest of the four. Conflict
Lucy learns on her first visit through the wardrobe that an evil force named the White Witch who calls herself Queen of Narnia has brought winter upon the land but never Christmas, and she and her siblings must reach Aslan in order to save their ccaptured brother and restore peace in Narnia.
Rising Action
The Faun, Mr. Tumnus, who helped Lucy escape in the beginning, and their brother, Edmund has been captured by the White Witch. With the help of a pair of beavers, the children find Aslan who has returned to Narnia after hundreds of years. Christmas has come along with Father Christmas and gifts of weapons for the children. The almighty lion brings Spring back to the land, breaking the spell of everlasting Winter that the witch had bestowed upon Narnia. After an ambush from the magical Narnians, Edmund is rescued. Unfortunately, the Witch has another plan up her sleeve. The "Deep Magic" mentioned which is greater than any other force in Narnia prevents Edmund from being free without a price. Since Edmund is a traitor, he must be killed or someone's life must be traded for his.
Climax
Aslan steps up to replace Edmund. After a foreshadowing of an unknown bargain made between the witch and the lion while sadness floats through the Narnians like it's contagious, Lucy and Susan decide to follow Aslan who appears to be taking a midnight stroll. After they are told to stop and turn back, but don't unbeknownst to Aslan, they watch as he walks into the midst of ridiculing beasts that belong to the White Witch. After binding, muzzling, and beating him, the witch kills him with a stone dagger on top of the Stone Table.
Falling Action
After Lucy and Susan spend the night with Aslan's dead body, they experience his resurrection. His mane having been cut off had now grown back and he appears even more magnificent than before. The girls ride on Aslan's back to the Witch's castle where Aslan then blows on all of the statues of innocent creatures the Witch had made with her magic wand and brought them back to life. This is where Lucy reunites with Mr. Tumnus. Afterward, the stampede of Narnians join Peter and the rest of the small army to battle the White Witch and her evil followers. Aslan kills the witch, effectively ending her reign while Lucy and Aslan treat those who are wounded from the battle and have been turned to stone. The children are then crowned Kings and Queens, Aslan leaves but is expected to be back, and Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and Susan rule over Narnia until they are adults.
Resolution
While chasing a White Stag, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy find themselves back at the lamp-post which they have long forgotten by now. Curious, they venture on until they're pushing through coats and then falling back through the wardrobe. No time at all has passed outside of the wardrobe, and they are now children again. They go see the professor to talk to him about retrieving the four winter coats they left in Narnia, but he says it's unlikely they'll be able to return back through the Wardrobe. He tells them that it is probable they will return though, but in a different, unexpected way.
Characterize the Hero
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Characterizing Lucy
Lucy Pevensie is a mere child throughout her adventure in Narnia, expressing all of the traits and the good in children. Her curiosity was what lead her to peeking inside the wardrobe in the first place, thus leading to a whole adventure. When she first steps through the wardrobe and meets a Faun, Mr. Tumnus, she proves to be trusting by allowing this stranger to lead her to his home where her adventure starts. Her golden heart and selflessness shine when Edmund grudgingly apologizes for lying about his visit to Narnia and Lucy eagerly forgives him and again when the Faun has been kidnapped and she feels the need to rescue him. Lucy is the one who suggests that she and Susan should look outside in the hopes of seeing Aslan at the point where the army of Narnians is in depression after Aslan strikes an unnerving deal with the White Witch. This one decision Lucy makes as a result of her caring personality leads into a whole line of events which progress to the climax of the story. Each weapon given to the children by Father Christmas reflects their personalities, and the cordial potion, a healing gift, symbolizes the care for others in her heart.
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Metacognition
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Identify and describe two specific concepts you learned during this unit. Did you find the concepts relatively easy to understand or not?
One concept I learned and found easy to comprehend during the "Hero's Journey" unit was the challenges and temptations the hero of the story faces when he or she is advancing through their journey. This is something each person can relate to because it's something we all have to deal with throughout our lives. For example, at one point in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the hero, Lucy Pevensie must find Aslan in order to save her brother and the Faun from the White Witch. Although I have not found myself racing through a frozen forest to find a talking lion, I have faced a challenge that this symbolizes. I had to face the challenge of telling an adult about a friend of mine's problems in order to save them from themselves which is basically the same concept here. In another instance in The Odyssey, Odysseus is tempted with the offer to live eternally with two beautiful goddesses at separate points in the story. He overcomes this temptation, so he can return to his wife, Penelope. Although I have not faced this kind of seduction before, I can relate it to novels I have read, making it easier to fully understand.
Something else I found easy to understand was an epic poem itself. The Odyssey is the perfect example of an epic including Odysseus as an important hero, a large setting, his journey back to Ithica, the involvement of supernatural forces such as the gods and goddesses and their gifts, the Greek mythology basis, and Odysseus fighting against his fate to never find his home. Although The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe isn't written in stanzas so it can't be classified as an epic poem, it has basically the same influence such as the obvious hero, the imaginary, vast country of Narnia, Lucy and her sibling's journey to save Narnia, supernatural forces being the many mythical creatures that reside in Narnia, a Biblical basis, and later in the novel the struggle to save Edmund from his fate as a traitor. Although written in entirely different eras and under two different genres, I can find some of the same influences in each piece of literature.
Identify one of more specific concepts in this unit you found confusing.
One concept I found myself struggling to wrap my mind around was the various helpers throughout the hero's adventure. It was mentioned that there could be bad helpers, but this never made sense to me since the definition of help is to make easier or less difficult or to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need. Poseidon was said to be a helper in The Odyssey, and at first, I couldn't grasp why. Poseidon was the one who cursed Odysseus out to sea in the first place. I wasn't sure how this helped him. Then I realized that what Poseidon did actually helped Odysseus become a better person and to change his tragic flaw of arrogance. Then again, the White Witch could have been classified as a helper throughout The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe if Edmund was the hero since she put an end to his selfish, spiteful attitude, but she is the antagonist. The idea is interesting to delve into and in my opinion, highly subjective. How well were you able to budget your time during this project? Identify one thing you can do (starting today) to better manage your time.
The tactic I chose for completing this great task was annotating the entire novel and then creating the website. When I reached a point halfway through the novel, I realized that my time would be up before I could complete the project if I continued to advance this way. As a solution, I read the rest of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and took an entire Friday night and Saturday evening completing the website. In order to budget my time better for the next project, I've learned to spread the tasks out. I'll read through the novel before annotating it, so I'll be able to work on the project periodically instead of at the last minute. I'll complete one job at a time instead of cramming it all into a couple nights. This way, I'll have spent the same amount of hours, but I'll have time for other things on those nights as well. There is nothing I can do starting today since it's all done, but I'll keep this in mind for the next project.
Identify at least one concept or skill you will devote more study and practice to.
One of my hobbies I tend to find release in every day is writing. Although I have only completed one, I've found myself starting dozens of novels and dishing out several unassigned stories and poems. This unit has taught me the importance of characterizing the hero in a story to help one's audience fully understand the character. In the past, I've had trouble defining my character since their personality would frequently change with whatever my mood happened to be while I was writing. I've learned that maintaining their personality and possibly creating a scenario to change them if desired is necessary to help the tone of my story. It should be easy to characterize my fictional person to anyone who didn't create them in order to tell a steady tale. I'll continue to write and create my characters, fashioning each one to fit a certain persona and only changing them under the correct circumstances. Edmund, a spiteful and selfish character in the beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe didn't sacrifice his Turkish Delights in order to keep his siblings away from harm. That was his personality, and if he chose to do this, it would make him seem like he did have a soft spot in his body. Only later, when the White Witch turned a whole family of innocent creatures into stone, Edmund began to lose his self pity and spite and feel sorry for the animals. Characters are tricky creations, but once one crosses the end of a novel, it'll be relieving to find one's character well thought out and thoroughly designed. I'll continue to experiment with them, and I'll study a whole range of endless personalities and reactions to different forces one can have.
Describe at least one specific action you will take (starting today) to overcome your most significant learning obstacle.
Procrastination and I have become best friends over the years, and I can't help but find something else to do when I'm supposed to be studying or completing an assignment. Even if the paper is sitting right in front of me, the blankness of it intimidates me, making me dread having to complete the whole task. I'll start to think of other stuff I could be doing and decide to put it off until the last minute. This is definitely not the smartest way to go about doing work. I usually end up doing my assignments and studying late on the night before it's due. This forces me to rush through it instead of absorbing the material I need to learn in order to achieve high grades on upcoming tests. Today I have built a wall between me and procrastination, forcing myself to focus on my studies instead of playing videogames for example. I continue to remind myself that if I finish this tonight as well as study for EOCT's, I won't have to worry about it tomorrow and I'll have plenty of time to have some fun. It's extremely relieving and satisfying knowing that I already have my work done when I immerse myself in a fun activity.
Works Cited
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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lewis, Clive. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: HarperCollins, 1950. Print.
Cover Image
Baynes, Pauline. The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 1994. Open Library. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.
Lucy and the Lamp Post
ashymolassy. WallpaperReflectSeries-Lucy. Photograph. Photobucket. Photobucket Corporation, Web. 1 Dec. 2012.
