Better Late Than Never

For my article I read, Examining Mythology in "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis. In my opinion, I really thought the writer captured her audience by comparing opening a book, and opening up the wardrobe to Narnia to find an unknown place. Children of all ages, even me, love to read these Narnian stories and feel like they are in a magical and mythical world. C.S. Lewis himself even studied mythology and had definitive ideas of what made a myth and what did not.  In judging the idea of myth and truth, Lewis in his sermon “Myth Became Fact,” deemed that “myth is the isthmus which connects the peninsular world of thought with that vast continent we really belong to” (141) and later, speaking specifically in reference to Christianity, “The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be a myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history.  It happens” (141).  Lewis just simply knew what to write and what made people stay inside the magical world called Narnia.

            The writer of the article seems to underestimate what Lewis is trying to portray in his stories about who the characters are. In the second book with Prince Caspian, Aslan heals an old woman and she knows who Aslan is without ever meeting him before. The writer seems to be very distraught with this and doesn’t understand how this would be possible. What I think that the writer should realize is that most of C.S. Lewis’s readers are Christian and understand this statement. In “The Chronicles of Narnia,” Aslan is a figure of Jesus Christ and if you are one of his followers, than when you see Him for the first time you will know who He is. The writer looks at this as a sort of miscommunication. He Himself can be seen in many ways and is very important to many people in Narnia and in reality. Lewis brings his mythical creatures to life with characteristics that people can relate to like He who we pray to at night and our best friends. The writer just doesn’t understand how myths can have realistic features to them too. In addition, the writer also said that, “the myth and the aspects of the myth, must present in a simple, clear manner in which children can understand.  If the complexity of the myth confuses the children, less people would believe in Aslan because of interruptions one usually achieves as adults, like skepticism, ideology, and negative attributes of the Narnian adults and would halt the acceptance of Aslan and other stories.” Unfortunately, I think she’s wrong.

            Lewis wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia” in a way that most people can understand. He used characters like lions, witches, princes, and princesses so that any age could understand in their own way. The writer and other critics makes it sound like no one will ever understand his books but in fact they’re wrong. People have their own way of making books and myths in their own language and that’s exactly what C.S. Lewis did.