The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew Critique

General summary

The story begins with two young children who's names are Polly and Digory. Polly and Digory are both very curious adventurers about to embark on the adventure of their lives. One day in London England, the two children stumble into Digory's uncle Andrew's "magical layer", where he tricks the children into putting on magic rings that transport them to an unknown place which they name "the woods between the worlds". It is there where the two young explorers discover that this place is a link to many other worlds. The two decide to go and explore another world. The new world at which they entire is unlike theirs, it is described as looking very ugly and dead. The name of the world is Charn. Soon after entering the world, the children end up awakening an evil Queen named Jadis by ringing a bell. The two find out that Jadis destroyed her land and now wishes to leave and conquer their world.  She is further referred to as the witch. The children try to escape with their rings, however the witch holds onto them and all three are teleported back to the woods between the worlds. It is there that they realize the witch is becoming weak, so they quickly jump back into their home world when the witch grabs them again and goes with them. The witch is now in the children's world where she meets uncle Andrew and manipulates him into doing her dirty work. Polly decides she is of no use right now and goes home for the night, as it is very late. The next day uncle Andrew and the witch leave their house and go to town where the witch begins to wreak havoc. Digory devises a plan and has to wait a long time for uncle Andrew and the witch to return home in order to complete his plan. Suddenly Digory sees a mob following a horse pulled cab that the witch is controlling. The cab crashes, and the witch jump’s on the enraged horse. The witch begins to fight the mob. It is here where Digory runs outside and sees Polly. He tells her his plan to touch the witch's foot while holding the ring and goes for it. After some struggle Digory transports the witch back to the wood between the worlds. However it is not just them two, Polly, uncle Andrew, the horse, and the horses cabby who came with the mob and is holding onto the horse all were there with them. Shocked the children take everyone to another random world where they are greeted with darkness. It turns out that this world is just on the mitts of being created. Everyone suddenly notes that there is a song resonating in the air, and mountains, grass, and animals start to come from the ground. It is realized that this music is coming from a lion. The witch runs away, uncle Andrew goes mad, and the children follow the lion. The lion then selects a pair of animals from each species and gives the animals chosen the power to speak. The horse that came with the children is one of those chosen animals. The lion whose name is Aslan, then offers the cabby with the honour of being king of this new land Aslan calls Narnia. The cabby unsure due to his wife back home is surprised when Aslan gives out a roar bringing the cabby his wife from their world. The cabby and his wife accept the honour of being the king and queen. Digory suddenly approaches Aslan where Digory asks Aslan if he has any magic fruit to save his mother. Aslan openly says how Digory brought the witch into Narnia and Digory begins to cry for his mom. Looking up at Aslan Digory, sees that Aslan too feels sorry for his mom and sends Digory on a quest. The horse that can now talk is given wings in order to fly and named Fledge. The two children proceed to embark on Digory's quest. The quest is to go to the outskirts of Narnia where there lies a tree with an apple that will protect the land from any evil the witch can display. After a long journey, the two finally arrive at golden gates where the tree must lie behind. Digory enters the gates only to find that there is a beautiful silver apple hanging from the tree, he picks it and puts it in his pocket. The odour that the apple is releasing is so intensely satisfying Digory is very close to picking another apple and eating it. However, a sign outside warned him not to. The witch suddenly appears and attempts to convince Digory to eat the apple or at least go back and give it to his mother. Digory does not fall for the witch's tricks and returns to Aslan. Aslan instructs Digory to throw the apple and stay for the coronation of the king and queen. Uncle Andrew still confused and scared was chased by animals, fainted, planted, mistaken for a tree, and fed while Digory, Polly and Fledge where on their quest adventure. After the coronation Aslan puts uncle Andrew to sleep, gives Digory a fruit for his mom, and brings the children the wood between the worlds. When the children arrive home they realise no time has passed while they were in Narnia. Digory runs home and gives his mother the apple where she eats it and becomes healthy again. Digory and Polly plant the core of this apple in the back with the rings. The apple grows into a tree, Digory's father comes home and everyone lives happy ever after. 

Writing style

The perspective at which this book is told is semi omniscient. The narrator of the novel has the ability to describe the thoughts of only certain characters in the novel. Throughout the book it is often Polly and Digory's inner thoughts that are mentioned while characters like the witch for example are only explained by her actions and her deepest thoughts are left for the reader to conspire. The writing style is written in a present tense. Even during separate time lines for other characters the book is still told in the time of the present. The way at which C.S. Lewis the author of this book, structures the timeline of this book is in a continuous flow. The entire novel is told from start to finish, there are no flashbacks or jumps in the timeline, it is all one flat continuous line moving from the beginning of the adventure to the end. C.S. Lewis uses a very descriptive language in order to add an effect that touches the senses throughout the novel. For example at the end when Digory gives his mother the magic silver apple, C.S. Lewis describes how the light of the apple is reflecting all around the room and it is so bright and beautiful that it is all you would wish to look at. The language C.S. Lewis uses almost paints an image in your mind of that location, it is almost as if you can just feel what it would be like to be in the presence of that beautiful apple.

Literary devices 

 There are a plethora of literary devices to be found in this book, here are five of them: 

Conflict: The conflict throughout the book is constantly changing, shifting from person vs person to person vs environment, there are many different conflicts throughout the story. The most important conflict however, is person vs self. Person vs self is seen so many times throughout the book, and it even ties in with a major theme. For example when Digory is first faced with the rings to teleport, a conflict arises inside of him wondering if he should go after Polly or not. This conflict ties in with the theme of good fighting evil as well. Digory knows that the good thing to do is to go after his friend yet his fear which is driven by the selfish need to survive that we all have, is telling him not to go. In the end of this conflict Digory goes after Polly and the good unselfish side of him wins. 

Symbolism: Symbolism is another literary device that C.S. Lewis uses in the book in order to add to the effect at which the book has. An example of symbolism in the book is Aslan himself. When a person is described as a lion it is usually not a bad thing, although ferocious lions are often times displayed with honour, courage and warm protecting nature. All these attributes are also displayed in another idea, this idea is the common good. Aslan is a symbol for the common good. 

Imagery: Throughout the book imagery is a key tool that C.S. Lewis  uses in order to add a sensual image, meaning he gives the reader an idea of what the surrounding area is like based on the five senses throughout the setting in the book. When Digory first enters the wood between the worlds, C.S. Lewis gives a very detailed explanation of how the calmness of the wood between the worlds is so relaxing, silent and peaceful it made you want to just sleep.  Another example of imager is again in the woods between the worlds. C.S. Lewis describes how there is an infinite amount of portal puddles and trees surrounding them in great detail. 

Themes: This book has many interesting themes that all impact the story greatly. The theme that recurs most often throughout the book however is the theme of Good fighting evil. This theme is seen a plethora of times throughout the book and displays itself in many different conflicts. An example of this theme is at the end when the queen is try to persuade Digory to eat the silver apple. Digory in this situation represents the good, while the queen represents evil. 

Foil: Character foil is seen many times throughout this book. One example of character foil is uncle Andrew and both children Polly and Digory. Uncle Andrew demonstrates the actions of a coward and a liar, while both children demonstrate bravery and honesty. An example of this is when the children and uncle Andrew get their first glimpse of the talking animals. When the three characters are faced with these talking animals, both Polly and Digory demonstrate bravery and confront them, while Digory's uncle Andrew being the "mature" adult runs away from the situation. 

Evaluating effectiveness 

This book in terms of the logistics in the real world does not do a good job of being believable. There are no such things as fairies let alone half fairies half humans, teleporting with rings is impossible, and animals cannot talk. However, in the presences of the book and since it is fictional the rules at which the book said where logical in that realm where not broken so if one bases believability on those logistics, then yes in the realm of this world it is believable. The book is very engaging for the reader. This book displays a lot of suspense and character parallels, as well as complete opposite characters that only an engaged reader would notice. For example uncle Andrew and Polly and Digory. Uncle Andrew throughout the novel demonstrates a cowardly portrayal that is also very close-minded although being the "mature" adult, yet Polly and Digory demonstrate the complete opposite of this as they display courage, bravery and honesty. The qualities that Polly and Digory character displays are all ones that uncle Andrew should be displaying being a mature adult and the qualities that uncle Andrew's character displays is qualities common in children. This is seen early on in the beginning of the book where uncle Andrew lies and tricks both children to put on the rings to teleport to the new worlds, because he himself is too old and afraid. 

Rating

In my personal opinion I would rate this book at four out of five stars, making it good. It has very descriptive imagery engaging all of the bodies senses, the suspense making you conjure up thoughts while reading, the perpendiculars in characters as there differences are clearly shown and the curiosity of who is evil and who is good are all ways in which the book creates an actual experience for the reader. However, sometimes the descriptive aspect of the writing can be a little too much and cause the reader to get disengaged from the story temporarily, this is the reason for the four out of five stars instead of five of five stars. Other than the over kill on the descriptions at time the book is great. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of fiction, and not just to someone in my age group. This book displays a great deal of mystery and fiction; anyone who reads it is surely going to have a positive experience. A side from the little description of war, the book is fairly child friendly, I can truly say I would recommend this book. 

Evaluate Bias 

Throughout my entire life I never really did much reading, only when forced too. I can honestly say that I am not a huge fan of reading and often times will try to avoid it. Since I have dislike towards books, just the idea of picking up this novel and reading it gave me the shivers. However, when reality hit me I realized that I would have to begin reading this book pretty soon in order to finish everything. At first the book was a little confusing for me, the two young children in London gage, I have seen it before. When the two children though began their adventure my entire perspective changed. When I was younger my sister and I never really had anything to do at home. We would usually go on mini adventure of our own and explore the "vast unknown" which was our house. When I began to read this book a force inside of me began to come out that drew me to read more each day. To sum, at first I was very unaffected while reading this book, then I began to slowly enjoy it more and more after every page as it reminded me in a way of adventures with my own sister. 

Author influences 

Not much is discussed about C.S. Lewis's influences while writing this book, or any of his other books; however, in his biography it is said that C.S. Lewis wrote the main character of the first book in the series to resemble Jesus Christ. Through this the interpretation can be made that an influence on his writing is his religion. 

Connection to the real world and humanity

Throughout this book a theme that could not surpass my thought is the theme of good fighting evil. This theme is so apparent in the book from beginning to end. Many times, the children or Aslan displays the good and the evil is displayed through greed, lust, and the lying of others. However, there are some cases in the book where the theme of good fighting evil is even apparent is Polly and Digory. When Polly and Digory enter the first unexplored world (Charn) they go exploring around, after some time the two finally reach a place where a bell is placed on a mini column. Underneath the bell is a text which informs the children that danger comes from ringing the bell, yet if they do not ring it they will be driven mad with regret. It is here where the conflict starts, Polly being the voice of reason wishes to leave, while Digory argues saying they should ring the bell to find out what will happen. Digory's instinct to ring the bell is being driven by his greed from knowing, while Polly is worried more about the danger that lies with this. A relation that this book has with something in our world is the relation to the creation story. Towards the middle of the book everyone reaches the new world that is yet to be created, it is seen that Aslan is making these beast's, mountains, hills, and everything come about with the magic in his song. In the creation God creates Adam and Eve with his rib, and the rib of Adam. Aslan is also portrayed as a figure or create power, as he is able to extract the cabby wife from there own world. Aslan also refers to Polly as daughter of Eve and Digory as son of Adam. Finally, while Digory is in the garden with the magical fruit the witch comes and attempts to persuade him to eat the fruit just the way the devil did on the creation story. To sum, the theme at which is very apparent in this book is good fighting evil, and the real world relation is the creation story from the bible.