Narnia....a land of fantasy and adventure where magic and a Great Lion prevail. A land where so many people wish to be, a land from start to finish in The Chronicles of Narnia. Seven books written by Clive Staples Lewis have proven to be the most enchanting and mesmerizing books of all time. Pure beauty and amazing imagery allows the reader to become an explorer of Narnia and take part in the fascinating adventures bound to happen. Readers become one with the pages, not wanting to put the book down for fear of the wonderful land of Narnia escaping their minds. Not wanting to lose the joy and bliss as the words flow, page after page, book after book.
The Chronicles of Narnia were first written by C.S. Lewis with children in mind. Easy dialogue and a sense of reality in the fantasy setting allows all ages to enjoy and fall in love with these books.
The adventure begins with The Magician’s Nephew. The reader is introduced to Digory Kirke and Polly Plumer. Digory’s Uncle Andrew, a mad magician, doesn’t fully understand the magic that he is dealing with. Andrew was given four rings when he was a child and when he received them, was ordered to throw them away and never think of them again. He didn’t do so. By sheer trickery, Andrew convinces Polly to slip on one of the rings. When she did so, she opened the gates to the “Woods Between the Worlds.” Here, she found a wooded area with ponds as far as the eye could reach. Digory went after his beloved playmate and soon the two of them embarked on an adventure that would change their lives forever.
Charn was the first world, or pond, that they entered. After exploring this dark world with ancient ruins, they stumbled into a room where statues of royal families all sat in a row. An enchantment was put on them and Digory, being a mischievous boy, broke the enchantment awakening an evil witch. The witch, Jadis, had destroyed Charn and once the children realized how evil she was, they tried to escape, the witch had tightly gripped Polly’s hair and they ended up back in England, where Andrew was cowardly waiting. Jadis, who was also very power hungry, caused havoc in England until the children devised a plan to rid her and send her back to Charn. In order to do so, they had to slip on their rings and hold onto her. Something happened though, instead of going to Charn, they stumbled in to a different world, a world that...
... middle of paper ...
...ing in it, except for those who have followed him and have proved their loyalty.
All those who were spared, were brought to a different world, Aslan’s Country. A world with in a world, the mirror image of Narnia with the exception that everything is much bigger and has more beauty. A place where sadness does not exist, where getting tired is not an option. Due to a train accident in our world, Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Digory, Jill, Polly, and Eustace were all killed. Though they died in our world, their lives were just beginning in Aslan’s Country. Digory and Polly, who were eighty years old in our world, were now children again. All who were spared by the Great Lion, live now with him, in the true world of Narnia, where animals talk, being happy is a must, and painful memories seize to exist.
The Chronicles of Narnia are filled with dreams and a longing desire to partake in the adventures. C. S. Lewis had an unmistakable talent for writing. His books will be passed down for generations to come, leaving all those who read the Narnia books with a smile on their faces and high hopes that they to may one day arrive in Narnia and live a life full of beauty, adventure, love and respect.
None of them knew that that would be the last time they will see him. As a fictional book, Brittain sets the book in a magical town of Coven Tree, somewhere in New England. Brittain is known to write fictional children’s books that focus on magic. This work is a simple read that one can comprehend.
Living in Maryland, the narrator and her little brother Joey lived a very simple life. There mother had job that required many hours, and her father was unemployed and still in the process of trying to find a job. They lived in a very run down house in a very small poor community. One summer day, the narrator , Joey, and a group of kids from the community were bored and wanted to do something different. So,the narrator and the kids went down to one of the elders home, Miss Lottie. Miss Lottie was the old woman that everyone made stories about and for the kids they knew her as the witch. In the summer time Miss Lottie would always be in her front yard planting marigolds, which were an easy target to destroy. The kids all took part in throwing rock at Miss Lottie's marigolds, and the narrator was the coordinator. After they sprinted back to the oak tree, the narrator started to feel guilt for what she
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.
The Chronicles of Narnia are enticing books, which offer a wonderful fictional plot line, but also a deeper philosophical importance if one analyzes the series. Many religious allusions can be found between characters in Narnia and biblical people. Deeper understanding can be found throughout the stories even in many overlooked aspects of everyday life. “The Chronicles of Narnia” is a piece of literature filled with religious symbols and allusions, such as the actions of Aslan and the personality of Peter, that enhance one’s perception and understanding of the books.
The Magician’s Nephew takes place in multiple worlds. It begins in this world, in the early 1900’s, in a normal British neighborhood, in the backyard of one of the houses where a girl named Polly meets a boy named Diggory and they talk for a while until Diggory mentions that his uncle is working on a top-secret project. Diggory convinces Polly to go with him to see what the project is. When they walk into his uncle’s lab, the Professor sees the kids, shows them the rings, and tricks Polly into using one of them. Then the Professor explains to Diggory that he figured out a way to do teleportation and tells him what the rings do and how they work. “The moment you touch a yellow ring, you vanish out of this world. When you are in the Other Place I expect-of course this hasn't been tested yet, but I expect-that the moment you touch a green ring you vanish out of that world and-I expect-reappear in this,” the professor presumes (Lewis 25). He wants Diggory to be a part of his experiment to see if his theory is accurate, and Diggory realizes that if he does not go along with the Professor, Polly will be stuck in some other world. The Professor puts the rings in separate pockets and tells Diggory that he will teleport as soon as he touches one. When Diggory is ready, the Professor tells him to put his hand in the pocket were the yellow ring is. Then Diggory vanishes and...
The ship is a group of Narnians sailing east looking for the seven lost lords of Narnia. Caspain the king of Narnia is leading the search group along with Ripecheep the leader of the talking mice.( In Narnia animals talk and walk around like humans) Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace since came into the world in the ocean they have to go along on the rescue mission. They come to an island and they had to find food and supplies. Eustace decided to go rest for awhile and finds a place up a hill. When he wakes from his nap there is a thick fog and he thinks he knows the way that he came from. He walks down into a valley and sees a pond and decides to take a drink. He sees a cave and decides to go in. Inside the cave there is gold, jewels, crowns, diamond, all kinds of treasure. He puts a bracelet on and while he was sitting in a pile of gold he fell back asleep. When he woke up his arm was very sores and noticed the band was now very tight. Eustace walked over to the pond to take a drink and sees the relexion of a dragon in the water. He had been turned to a dragon by taking the dragons gold. He is a dragon for a few days then Aslan(Aslan is the great emperor of Narnia) comes to visit him and changes him back.
Lewis did not intend for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to attempt to strike at moral standpoints. Lewis stated in an interview, “’I don’t like stories to have a moral: certainly not because I think children dislike a moral. Rather because I feel sure that the question: ‘What do modern children need?’ will not lead you to a good moral”’ (Sadler). However, his use of the innocence of children evokes the essence of purity and good. This purity conflicts with the cruelty and scorn displayed through the White Witches actions, resulting in her becoming an evil figure. The archetype of good vs. evil that writers use throughout literature has proven to be a successful means of striking intrigue in an audience. This combined with the magical setting employed by the mysterious Narnia allows Lewis’ work to be so interesting to readers through decades and generations.
The woods between the worlds acts like a modern day a pit-stop between the worlds that the children travel too. This magical place has pools or puddles of water that act as portals to new and old worlds. Their are also many very few creatures here other than a talking guinea pig. This guinea pig guides the two into the different worlds.
J.R.R. Tolkien's concept of too much power is summed up by Lord Acton when he once said, "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely." In Tolkien's first book of his fantasy based trilogy, Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Rings tells a story of a quest to destroy a powerful ring throughout Tolkien's created "Middle Earth". This quest was headed by a "Hobbit" named Frodo Baggins who, in the end, becomes corrupted by power himself. This corruption begins when Frodo uses his ring to become invisible over and over again to escape certain situations. The quest to destroy the powerful "Ruling Ring" forms the basis for this story.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
By reading Great Expectations, “we would still have another country to flee to. And that would save our sanity.” The heart seed “reaches soil”, becomes rooted and finds stability in the earth. Similarly, Matilda’s freedom to fantasise allows her to temporarily escape the noise and terror of a hostile world of political conflict, and find peace and comfort in the imaginary world created by
Fiction has always been used as a way to relay different types of messages throughout time. In many cases authors use fiction to make political commentary, use stories to bring out the major flaws that society has, as well as a way to spread different types of beliefs or ideals. C.S. Lewis’s used his work, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, to reiterate the messages of the Bible to those who might have gotten lost during their lifetime. Though his whole series was full of connections the book that have the most prevalent connections are The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In both there are places that are very similar to and very different books in the Bible. Taking into context when Lewis wrote this series is extremely important to see what some of his motivations might have been. These stories were started soon after World War II had ended. These stories were a way to teach the next generation some of the morals that the Bible was teaching. By creating these fantastical stories Lewis was able to make connections to help bridge the learning gap between the two generations. Also by using children as a target audience Lewis was able to remind adults as well, instead of being ignored because of the recent war. Lewis was able to address these lessons and morals in a way that both taught the children the way of the Bible, as well as to put a new spin on old tales so that adults were able to come back to religion, after losing some faith during the brutal war.
Harry Potter starts off slow, but gets very interesting near the end. In the beginning, you meet the Dursleys, Harry’s aunt, uncle, and their son Dudley. Then you learn that Harry’s parents were witches, and that they were destroyed by a evil wizard. A good witch, Albus Dumbeldoor, sends Harry to the Dursleys, because they’re his only remaining family. The Dursleys however, hated Harry and his family, so Harry was mistreated for years. He was forced to live in a cuborrod under the stairs. He had to watch as the fat, stuck up Dudley got whatever he wanted, and then usually broke whatever it was he got. Then one day Harry got a letter.
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.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was written by J. K. Rowling and is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. The book is about a seventeen-year-old wizard, named Harry Potter, who has to travel all over England to find things that will help him defeat the evil wizard, Lord Voldomort. The main theme/moral of the entire series is good will always triumphs over evil. In every book, even when it looks like evil is going to win, good always triumphs in the end.