Heaven And Hell In C. S. Lewis The Great Divorce

C.S Lewis wrote The Great Divorce to describe what he envisions occurs in heaven and hell. Because I have always been interested in the concept of afterlife (I do believe in it, but obviously have no idea what it will actually consist of) I found this book especially interesting. First, Lewis introduces his construct of Hell, which is a dim and dreary grey town that is perpetually bleak. The narrator arrives at a bus stop, which allows Hell’s inhabitants to go and visit Heaven. As they depart from Hell, he talks about how large and never-ending the “town” is, because the people in Hell are constantly moving further and further away from each other because they all cannot seem to get along. Eventually, the bus lands in Heaven, which is blooming with beautiful foliage and rivers. There are cities built on enormous mountains and the narrator describes everything as almost tranquil and serene. …show more content…
Unlike the Ghosts, these people are described as much more whole and concrete, and the narrator describes them as Spirits. The Spirits pair off, one to one, with the Ghosts and try to convince them to remain in Heaven. Several different conversations are described between different sets of ghosts and spirits, each conversation existing in a different chapter. One Ghost is struggling to understand why he was “damned” to Hell while the Spirit he is talking to is a murderer and was allowed in Heaven. Another describes a conversation between an apparent atheist Ghost and a believing Spirit. These conversations explain certain aspects of the afterlife that Lewis believes in, such as forgiveness and acceptance. The narrator eventually meets his Spirit, who is a preacher named George MacDonald, who goes more in depth about the aspects of how to achieve everlasting life in