C. S. Lewis: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe

The typical reader of fantasy literature wouldn’t expect to find symbols for Christianity in a book. But a reader of a work by C.S Lewis can expect just that. Lewis was a poet, scholar, and above all, one of the most renowned authors of fantasy literature during the 20th century. He was best known for The Chronicles of Narnia series, and specifically, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. He was a devout Christian and was a defender and teacher of the faith. His faith and life experiences had a massive impact on his works of literature that can be seen clearly by readers. Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis was born on November 29th, 1898 in the city of Belfast, Ireland. Early on in his childhood, he would declare to everyone he met that his name was Jack, and for the rest of his life, those closest to him called him that. He grew up in a religious family …show more content…
He had been working on poetry, but stopped that and began to work on pieces of literature in which he could incorporate Christianity. (Beversluis and Dorsett.) While The Chronicles of Narnia were written many years after his conversion, they still achieve his goal of incorporating Christianity. The entire series is a symbol for the Christian story: from the Magician’s Nephew, which is an analogy for the creation, to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, which symbolizes the crucifixion, and to The Last Battle, is a symbol for the revelations. When WWII broke out, Lewis would air radio talk shows talking about christianity. During WWII, he also sheltered children that were evacuated from the cities do to fear of Nazi air raids. This carried over into The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe., where Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter are evacuated from London to live in the countryside during WWII. Lewis also wrote books that weren’t symbols for Christianity and were instead bluntly about Christianity. The most popular of these books is the Screwtape