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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
I found this to be the least engaging single Narnia book, as the character of Tirian did not feel as fleshed out or interesting to me as the other central Narnian heroes, and it didn't add much new to the characters of Eustace or Jill. Similarly, other than coming back to die as part of a grander statement about goodness and life, the Pevensies and Digory and Polly (especially poor Polly!) have incredibly little to do other than exist in the third act of the story.
That being said, I do think that as a series conclusion, the plot of the earlier part of the novel thematically syncs up perfectly with the final ending of Narnia. Shift and the Calormen do a great evil not just in impersonating Aslan, but in doing so in order to do harm to others. While we've seen great battles for the free peoples of Narnia before (including in the first book published in the series), this time there is something truly insidious about how the enemy deceives the innocents time and again. It isn't the supernatural malevolence of Jadis, the White Witch, but the greedy, selfish part of the human heart that does this horrible damage. Therefore, it makes sense that as this evil swallows up Narnia, Aslan, who breathed it into existence in the first place, ends it with fire and flood, and takes back to his beautiful country all the good people of Narnia.
And THAT is something that I do LOVE about this book: Aslan does not only take those who followed or believed in him, but ALL who lived good lives, including the Calormen Emeth. This reminds me of his punishment of Aravis in The Horse and His Boy once she enters his domain, or (less directly) of Rilian's fascination with Bism in The Silver Chair: a clear acceptance that good is good, and it can wear many, many faces.
However, the Christian allegory, and prevalent cultural attitudes of Lewis's time, distract from the overall message more so in this novel, I think, than any of the others.
Regarding the former, we are in the tricky situation in Narnia where there are existent good and evil gods, in the respective forms of Aslan and Tash. While Aslan is an easily understood avatar for Jesus Christ (sometimes God, such as when he created Narnia in The Magician's Nephew), Tash could be understood in the broadest context of this novel as a stand-in for Satan...
... but then there's the Calormen. Most thoroughly explored in The Horse and His Boy, the Calormen are a vaguely Middle-Eastern, dark-skinned "other" in the World of Narnia, and Tash is their cruel, evil god-- Aslan's opposite. If Aslan represents Christianity, and is objective good, then Tash is other religions, and objective evil. The ideas of Tash and his "foreign" people cannot be completely separated, and even with the beautiful sentiment regarding Emeth, it's unfortunate for the commentary, at its simplest, to read "the dark skinned people worshipped an evil god-- they didn't know better."
I don't think it takes away from the positive messages of the book, but the entire Tash storyline is definitely a harmful instance of xenophobia and religious intolerance that ought to be acknowledged. Were the books not so pointedly allegorical, this might not be an issue... but they ARE quite pointedly allegorical!
This book also has the most obvious instances in the series of thinly veiled or inadvertent racism, including the gaudy, greedy ape; Tirian and the children disuging themselves by dying their skin darker, and feeling disgusted and inhuman; Eustace feeling more frightened of a row of dark-faced fighters than he had of a literal dragon or sea-serpent; and several instances of the slur "darkies" to demean the Calormen.
Again, I don't think these things were maliciously intended by Lewis to inflict any real-world harm, and there is evidence in the text that the Calormen are not all evil, backward people, which, to my mind, is thusly evidence that Lewis felt any person of any background in reality might be redeemed-- but these are absolutely harmful stereotypes all the same.
Then there's Susan. While I think that exploring the idea of somebody losing their faith is an interesting one for this series, the way that Susan is dropped like a hot potato is unfortunate, as she is one of the founding protagonists of the Narnia books. I'm very much of the opinion that Lewis's purpose in this section is to say that the prioritization of social clout or material possessions over goodness and faith is wrong, but he communicates the idea in a way that is extremely dismissive of very typical feminine interests (namely, makeup, clothing, and parties), and that's quite unfortunate, especially in a series that (although dated in its gendered notions and sense of chivalry) has featured five quite capable central female heroes: Lucy, Jill, Aravis, Polly, and of course Susan herself! All of this to say that while I appreciate Lewis's general sentiment here, I also understand and sympathize with those who think Susan deserved better.
All in all, I'm very glad that I've now read the entire Narnia series. It's had its ups and downs, but I've found each book at least good, and several of them genuinely great. As an atheist, there are definitely some elements that don't quite speak to me, and as a modern reader, there are definitely elements that are uncomfortably outdated.
But Lewis's achievement is still great, and his work is far more often than not a joy to read.
That being said, I do think that as a series conclusion, the plot of the earlier part of the novel thematically syncs up perfectly with the final ending of Narnia. Shift and the Calormen do a great evil not just in impersonating Aslan, but in doing so in order to do harm to others. While we've seen great battles for the free peoples of Narnia before (including in the first book published in the series), this time there is something truly insidious about how the enemy deceives the innocents time and again. It isn't the supernatural malevolence of Jadis, the White Witch, but the greedy, selfish part of the human heart that does this horrible damage. Therefore, it makes sense that as this evil swallows up Narnia, Aslan, who breathed it into existence in the first place, ends it with fire and flood, and takes back to his beautiful country all the good people of Narnia.
And THAT is something that I do LOVE about this book: Aslan does not only take those who followed or believed in him, but ALL who lived good lives, including the Calormen Emeth. This reminds me of his punishment of Aravis in The Horse and His Boy once she enters his domain, or (less directly) of Rilian's fascination with Bism in The Silver Chair: a clear acceptance that good is good, and it can wear many, many faces.
However, the Christian allegory, and prevalent cultural attitudes of Lewis's time, distract from the overall message more so in this novel, I think, than any of the others.
Regarding the former, we are in the tricky situation in Narnia where there are existent good and evil gods, in the respective forms of Aslan and Tash. While Aslan is an easily understood avatar for Jesus Christ (sometimes God, such as when he created Narnia in The Magician's Nephew), Tash could be understood in the broadest context of this novel as a stand-in for Satan...
... but then there's the Calormen. Most thoroughly explored in The Horse and His Boy, the Calormen are a vaguely Middle-Eastern, dark-skinned "other" in the World of Narnia, and Tash is their cruel, evil god-- Aslan's opposite. If Aslan represents Christianity, and is objective good, then Tash is other religions, and objective evil. The ideas of Tash and his "foreign" people cannot be completely separated, and even with the beautiful sentiment regarding Emeth, it's unfortunate for the commentary, at its simplest, to read "the dark skinned people worshipped an evil god-- they didn't know better."
I don't think it takes away from the positive messages of the book, but the entire Tash storyline is definitely a harmful instance of xenophobia and religious intolerance that ought to be acknowledged. Were the books not so pointedly allegorical, this might not be an issue... but they ARE quite pointedly allegorical!
This book also has the most obvious instances in the series of thinly veiled or inadvertent racism, including the gaudy, greedy ape; Tirian and the children disuging themselves by dying their skin darker, and feeling disgusted and inhuman; Eustace feeling more frightened of a row of dark-faced fighters than he had of a literal dragon or sea-serpent; and several instances of the slur "darkies" to demean the Calormen.
Again, I don't think these things were maliciously intended by Lewis to inflict any real-world harm, and there is evidence in the text that the Calormen are not all evil, backward people, which, to my mind, is thusly evidence that Lewis felt any person of any background in reality might be redeemed-- but these are absolutely harmful stereotypes all the same.
Then there's Susan. While I think that exploring the idea of somebody losing their faith is an interesting one for this series, the way that Susan is dropped like a hot potato is unfortunate, as she is one of the founding protagonists of the Narnia books. I'm very much of the opinion that Lewis's purpose in this section is to say that the prioritization of social clout or material possessions over goodness and faith is wrong, but he communicates the idea in a way that is extremely dismissive of very typical feminine interests (namely, makeup, clothing, and parties), and that's quite unfortunate, especially in a series that (although dated in its gendered notions and sense of chivalry) has featured five quite capable central female heroes: Lucy, Jill, Aravis, Polly, and of course Susan herself! All of this to say that while I appreciate Lewis's general sentiment here, I also understand and sympathize with those who think Susan deserved better.
All in all, I'm very glad that I've now read the entire Narnia series. It's had its ups and downs, but I've found each book at least good, and several of them genuinely great. As an atheist, there are definitely some elements that don't quite speak to me, and as a modern reader, there are definitely elements that are uncomfortably outdated.
But Lewis's achievement is still great, and his work is far more often than not a joy to read.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’m not sure how to rate this! I loved the reunions and the new heroes and getting a little more time with Eustace and Jill once they’ve matured a bit, but it’s hard to know whether to like the ending or not. It feels wrong that Susan excluded for essentially being a normal teenager when other characters are shown empathy for much worse. And the xenophobia is definitely hard to read. It was missing the magic that made the other stories so wonderful, so it wasn’t my favorite of the series