The Themes Of C. S Lewis The Great Divorce

Armen Tatevossian
Sesay
English 8
5 April 2023 When a reader first reads The Great Divorce, written by C.S Lewis, the reader may notice it has many themes interpreted throughout the story. These many themes are what makes up the novel’s main topic and the way the reader interprets the story. The story mentions many religious ideas and fantasy-like topics which invoke the reader to dig deeper into the story and understand its many meanings. The themes of The Great Divorce, written by C.S Lewis, have ideas and theologies which coincide with the real world, the most notable themes of The Great Divorce consist of: Christianity, free will, fantasy. The theme of Christianity is spread all around in C.S Lewis’ The Great Divorce, with its many

Early on it is shown the narrator as well as the other characters are in the after life. As well where most of the story takes place is in purgatory, or referred to as the Valley of the Shadow of Life in the book. Throughout most of the book the narrator makes his way through the Valley of the Shadow of Life, trying to reach heaven, which is said to be atop a mountain range. On his journey to heaven, he meets an author named George MacDonald. Together, the narrator and MacDonald venture through the Valley of the Shadow of Life to get to the mountain’s peak. While the narrator and MacDonald continue on their journey, they meet many others trying to make it to heaven, and with every time MacDonald shows the narrator something new to learn. Most of the time the narrator learns something new like a new perspective, or a general lesson about life. In The Great Divorce, it is said to get to heaven all you needed to do was to let go of your

One of the first questions asked by a reader of The Great Divorce is how the narrator and the other spirits were transported from grey town to the Valley of the Shadow of Life. A reader may simply say the bus took them there but later in the story it is revealed how they really were transported there. It is explained that when they got to the Valley of the Shadow of Life, they grew very large, and the size of grey town would be so small they couldn’t get back to it because of their size. This element gives the reader a sense of fantasy and shows not everything that happens during the story is explainable with Christianity and religion. Another instance of fantasy aspects would be the transformation of a certain animal and spirit. When the narrator and MacDonald were on the mountain side, they met a spirit with a lizard on his shoulder who hissed at the spirit, when the lizard hissed at the spirit it turned around and started leaving the mountain side. At that moment an angel appears and asks to kill the lizard, the spirit reluctantly says so and the angel closes his hands around the two and they die. Once the angel moved his hands away, the spirit started changing and turned into a naked human almost the size of the angel, and the lizard turned into a large stallion. The last instance shown in The Great Divorce is the ending of the story. While with MacDonald, the narrator notices