Recently I read C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series to my son. I must say, I agree with this take on it:
If you read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or saw the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, you’ll recall –
– I suppose that if you don’t want any spoilers, you should stop reading here, but since it’s a children’s story and based on Christian theology, I don’t think I’ll be giving away too much by saying –
– that the four human children who are the main characters, fight the White Witch and defeat her with the help of the great talking lion Aslan.
Well, to be precise, Aslan defeats the White Witch.
It’s never explained why Aslan ever left Narnia a hundred years ago, allowing the White Witch to impose eternal winter and cruel tyranny on the inhabitants. Kind of an awful thing to do, wouldn’t you say?
But once Aslan comes back, he kicks the White Witch out and everything is okay again. There’s no obvious reason why Aslan actually needs the help of four snot-nosed human youngsters. Aslan could have led the armies. In fact, Aslan did muster the armies and lead them before the children showed up. Let’s face it, the kids are just along for the ride.
The problem with Narnia… is Aslan.
C. S. Lewis never needed to write Aslan into the story. The plot makes far more sense without him. The children could show up in Narnia on their own, and lead the armies on their own.
But is poor Lewis alone to blame? Narnia was written as a Christian parable, and the Christian religion itself has exactly the same problem. All Narnia does is project the flaw in a stark, simplified light: this story has an extra lion.
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