As I work through my 100 Books list, I’m re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia as an adult. Read my review of The Magician’s Nephew here.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is probably the most popular and well-known Narnia book out there. Personally, I think that goes beyond the fact that it was published first. As I’m writing this review, I’ve already finished re-reading The Horse and His Boy and Prince Caspian and am currently reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader. So far, I still think LWW was the best of the series.

That family feel

The Pevensie children are all very unique individuals and the sibling dynamics are very realistic. I’m always a fan of a well-done sibling adventure story. Of course, I kept picturing the Disney movie (which I love), but I think the book and movie both have their strengths and weaknesses in character and relationship depictions.

I’m the oldest child of four, one girl with three brothers, so I can really connect with the Pevensies. As a kid I related more to Lucy in personality, then Prince Caspian came out and suddenly I was all about Susan. While she’s very different from me, that hasn’t changed (hence the almost-seven-years-and-counting fanfiction…) Peter is SUCH an Oldest Child, too, I gotta say.

Can I just say how much I love Edmund’s redemption arc? His character progression? His growth over time and with experience? Especially when you add in his part in Prince Caspian. His role in the movies is pretty good, but he really shines in the books. I’ve always loved the relationship between him and Lucy. As far as the mechanics and art of writing go, I might even say the strongest piece in the Narnia series is Edmund’s character arc.

Sidebar on worldbuilding

The world of Narnia is best established in this book. We’re introduced to the basic flora, fauna, magical creatures, and mythology in LWW, with the history fleshed out more in Magician’s Nephew. When the Pevensies step through the wardrobe, readers are stepping into Narnia for the first time, too. We get the full tour here, unlike in any other Narnia book.

C. S. Lewis seems quite fond of literally telling readers in the middle of the other books, ‘hey if you haven’t read the first one yet you should probably go do that, this will all make much more sense that way.’ I’m not sure if that’s lazy writing or just really funny, honestly. Maybe more children’s series should do that — just pause for a second in the middle of the story so the author/narrator can say “if you haven’t read a book called (title), then you should go do that and then come back here.”

The modern lens: sexism

As I mentioned in the first review, this adult re-reading of the series will include a (somewhat informal) look at whether Lewis’ Narnia books are sexist and/or racist, as I’ve heard some claim. I’m taking this strictly book-by-book, one at a time, separately.

In LWW specifically, I’m going to have to say mostly not*. Lucy and Susan aren’t in battle, but that’s not because they intentionally sit it out. They’re off on a totally different, equally important mission with Aslan while their brothers and the army get into it. Characterization doesn’t fall into gendered stereotypes. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are all their own people, quite distinct.

Yes, our primary villain is female (the White Witch) while the savior figure is male (Aslan)… but the villain is also a corrupt giantess posing as human, and the savior is a talking lion. Their characters are fleshed out far beyond simple depictions of their genders. I think they would still work in exactly the same roles, arcs, and plotlines if stripped of their genders entirely, and you can’t say that of many characters in books and movies released today. (The Jesus allegory might be less obvious, but only because Christianity is so patriarchal it’s got blinders half the time.) Critics could maybe say that the huge point made of humiliating Aslan by shaving his mane is depicting the feminine mane-free lionesses as inferior to mane-bearing lions and something to be ashamed of, but I would respond that a reversed scenario — Aslan shaving Jadis’ head — would have had the same humiliating emotional effect.

I can see why some readers would point fingers. When the children spend time at the home of the Badgers, Susan and Lucy help Mrs. Badger prepare the food and table while Peter and Edmund help Mr. Badger do the fishing and outside work. The girls do refrain from any fighting or battle while the boys duke it out against the bad guys. The author sticks with the gendered roles and expectations of the time period in which he lived and wrote the books. It would be fair to criticize the examples the characters set for modern children reading them as a result. However, I ruled “not sexist” because nowhere does the book state these roles/tasks are assumed because of the characters’ genders, nor does it even imply that tasks are restricted by gender*.

*WITH ONE EXCEPTION: Santa is sexist, y’all. Father Christmas flat-out tells the girls when he gives them their Christmas presents that women/girls should not be in battle. What he says exactly is (to Lucy) “For you are not to be in the battle” and then “Battles are ugly when women fight.” The rest of the book had been so not-sexist that this scene threw me for a loop, especially because the way he says it is so weird. “Battles are ugly when women fight.” What is that supposed to mean, exactly? All battles are ugly. Personally, I felt this implied either (1) that women fight dirty or (2) that women dying in battle is somehow worse than men dying in battle. Either point would be sexist, by portraying (1) that women are somehow morally inferior to men, or (2) that women are frail, precious, need saving, more worth protecting, etc. than men.

Let me know your thoughts on this line — from the character, the author, or both — in the comments.

The modern lens: racism

There’s not many humans in LWW, and they’re all white, so there’s not really a chance for Lewis to be or not be racist. If you want to get into how the depiction of mythical creatures carries over into real-life racial coding and/or stereotypes, or how mythical creature species could be interpreted as the fantasy version of real-life racial groups… you could argue that the division of certain creatures (dwarves, for example) as all/mostly bad (on the White Witch’s side) and others as all/mostly good (on the Pevensies’ and Aslan’s side) by default both (1) establishes a sort of fictional racism and (2) lays the groundwork for the more explicit racism in future Narnia books (we’ll get there in the next review(s).) But that’s a much deeper and more academic analysis than I really want to get into with this review series.

About the allegory…

Anyone who knows anything about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe should have at least an inkling about the fact that Lewis wrote a good bit of Christian allegory into it. Aslan is fursona Jesus (not my original joke, don’t hate me!), Jadis is anemic lady Satan, the stone table sacrifice is the crucifixion, etc. I might complain or comment on the allegory in the other Narnia books, but I think I just knew too well, going in, what to expect that I just sort of went “yeah this is the Jesus scene” and shrugged my shoulders.

Narratively the whole sacrifice, Aslan, Edmund thing actually works really well and is inherently part of the story, not shoehorned in. When readers (and Lewis) try to apply “Aslan is Jesus” across every instance in the whole series, then it gets weird and forced, but in this particular part of this book, it works.

The reading order of the series

LWW is often recommended as the first book a reader new to Narnia should pick up. While I think I’ll generally probably advocate the chronological reading order for this series over the publication order, this is one exception I agree with. LWW makes a much better series beginning, and book in general, than Magician’s Nephew (even if that was my childhood favorite of the series).

Up next

Next up, The Horse and His Boy. Oof… that one’s a doozy.