Thomas Foster claims that in most cases, the values of a writer’s dominant religion will in some way impact the literature they write (118). Many readers have found that when they returned to Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, the Christian undertones were much more recognizable, and for some that was a negative experience. “There’s nothing like a flaming sword to separate you from something…in this case that something is former innocence” (Foster 50). For The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, recognizing the religious symbolism can take away from the fantasy of a childhood world, and replace it with something more profound.
According to Thomas Foster in his book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Christ figures in literature should not resemble God in their entirety, otherwise they would not be figures (122). In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the character that shares similar characteristics with Jesus Christ is Aslan (Worsley 152). In particular, Aslan shares these traits with Jesus: good with children, self-sacrificing, and redeemer of an unforgiving world (Foster 119-120). Being good with children is evident throughout the book in his interactions with the Pevensie (check spelling) children. For example, Aslan provides for Lucy, Susan, and Peter as they ready to save their brother Edmund from the White Witch. The
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In Biblical times, the father was the head of the household and the main, or often only, source of income for the family to live off of. Although The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe takes place during World War II, the culture was much the same. The children’s father had been sent off to war, so they were without the head of their family. Peter does his best to fill that role, but the introduction of Aslan and the provisions he makes for the children creates him into a father