(Perhaps a tangential philosophical question, but how can scarred, nasty creatures create beauty? Consider, and return).
I read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe this time looking for sexism, and I must say, I can see it. I began reading The Magician's Nephew with the same intent, and was blown away. Lewis, beyond sexist, is "agist."
Consider Uncle Andrew. Digory, one of two main characters, again children, lives with his aunt and uncle. Uncle Andrew is described colorfully as a scary, eccentric, wicked being. We meet Jadis, the Witch found and defeated in the second book in the series, in Charn, another world accessed by the Wood between the Worlds. Seeing the two adults together, we realize that Lewis makes statement after statement that adults are the real villains, and children the protagonists of this life.
Pause. Insert counterpoint. The Cabby. The Cabby's Wife. Professor Kirke, who, in actuallity, is Digory. These adults are not villified. Notice here, however, that it is not age that defines adulthood, but behavior. Adult behavior, Lewis seems to argue, is inherently villainous; instead, childlike innocence is to be preferred. In all seven stories, children are the protagonists. The humans encountered in Narnia (I'm thinking namely of the princes found in Prince Caspian, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle) are also good by nature. Shasta's guardian in The Horse and His Boy, the enchantress in The Silver Chair, Uncle Miraz and other Telarmine lords in Prince Caspian, and the Calormene soldiers in The Last Battle, are all villains of their stories, and, though perhaps not all purely human adults, all behave adultly.
Forgive me: this is by no means exhaustive (at least, it shouldn't be). Professor Kirke, as a character, intrigues me. At first, he seemed to behave as an adult. He thought logically; he reasoned like an adult. Perhaps being childlike is simply the willingness to believe magic and fairy stories are true. Jesus told his discliples that only the childlike shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Maybe Jesus meant that only people willing to believe in such a fantastic place as His can actually get there. Digest.
3 comments:
Mmm, I hear what you mean. I like the last bit about childlike attitudes. But I think you're forgetting about a few child antagonists: Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader to be specific. Plus all those boys that pick on Eustace in, oh what book is it... the one with Eustace and Jill... The Silver Chair? The Horse and His Boy? I can't remember just now, but a lot of those boarding school children would definitely not be considered protagonists...
Yes, it was Jill Pole and Eustace Clarence Scrubb in The Silver Chair.
I can see the idea that children are the good guys, but there are all sorts of children with different intents. We need to have a childlike innocence. Even in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Edmond, wasn't a protagonist for most of the book. He was playing with fire and working with the villains for his own greedy intents.
Maybe it isn't acting like a child that we need to do, it is to have faith like a child. When you tell a child something, they believe it without question. They are willing to look past everything they know to be true and are willing to accept the unexplainable and to believe in things that are not possible. Sometimes we need that sort of willingness to accept and believe, or at least be an open minded about things, because we can't really choose what we believe, but we can certainly keep an open mind in hopes to be persuaded to believe in something.
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