The Voyage of the Dawn Treader {I}

I love Reepicheep! And his feelings towards the East remind me of how Lewis felt about the North.

Eustace sees a storm while everyone else sees "as fair weather as a man could ask for."

"And what is this governor, this Gumpas, like? Does he still acknowledge the King of Narnia for his lord?"
"In words, yes. All is done in the King's name. But he would not be best pleased to find a real, live King of Narnia coming in upon him."

I see Governor Gumpas as a bishop or other leader of a Christian congregation who still does things in the name of Christ but has drifted very far away and doesn't want anything actually convicting taught. He would not be pleased to find the real, live Jesus Christ coming in to his congregation. The governor is also caught up in paperwork and agenda and so does not recognize the real King of Narnia when he is right in front of his face. This reminds me of the Pharisees of Jerusalem, who are so caught up in the Law and keeping the minutest details that when the Son of God - who gave them the Law - is right in front of their faces, they do not recognize Him.

"When you get open sea on your port bow, run up a few signals."
"Signals? To whom?" said Drinian.
"Why, to all the other ships we haven't got but which it might be well that Gumpas thinks we have."

This reminds me of the military plan in the book of Joshua, where there are only 100 men but they make it appear as though they have many more.

"When they reached the jetty at Narrowhaven, Caspian found a considerable crowd assembled to meet them. "This is what I sent word about last night," said Bern. "They are all friends of mine and honest people." And as soon as Caspian stepped ashore the crowd broke out into hurrahs and shouts of, "Narnia! Narnia! Long live the King." At the same moment - and this was also due to Bern's messengers - bells began ringing from many parts of the town."

This reminds me of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem - crowds of people shouting "Hosanna" etc. Caspian is sort of a Christ-figure as he enters these Islands that have long ignored him.

"But that would be putting the clock back," gasped the governor. "Have you no idea of progress, of development?"
"I have seen them both in an egg," said Caspian. "We call it `Going Bad' in Narnia."

This reminds me of an idea in Mere Christianity about how if the clock is fast, putting the clock back is precisely the correct thing to do.
"You may have felt you were ready to listen to me as long as you thought I had anything new to say; but if it turns out to be only religion, well, the world has tried that and you cannot put the clock back... First, as to putting the clock back. Would you think I was joking if I said that you can put a clock back, and that if the clock is wrong it is often a very sensible thing to do? ... We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man."

The whole scene of Caspian on the Lone Islands reminds me of Christ cleansing the temple. He even turns over tables, as Christ does in the temple.

"They lifted it, and flung it on one side of the hall where it rolled over, scattering a cascade of letters, dossiers, ink-pots, pens, sealing-wax and documents. Then, not roughly but as firmly as if their hands were pincers of steel, they plucked Gumpas out of his chair and deposited him, facing it, about four feet away. Caspian at once sat down in the chair and laid his naked sword across his knees."

"Only one, to Reepicheep's delight, said, "And beyond that, Aslan country. But that's beyond the end of the world and you can't get there." But when they questioned -him he could only say that he'd heard it from his father."

The stories of the Utter East and Aslan's Country are very mythological and joy-envoking. Sort of like how Northern mythology was for Lewis I think. Christian overtones in Pagan myth and all that.

I think that everyone can see a bit of themselves in Eustace. He sort of reminds me of the Tousle-Headed Poet from The Great Divorce. Lewis is masterful at creating relate-able characters. In Eustace I can see myself, and I can also laugh at myself and recognize my worst qualities and hope to change.

Eustace's un-dragoning story is one of the greatest things ever. It's a super awesome story about conversion and getting rid of the "natural man" and trying our best but still having to rely on Christ to do it for us and baptism and it's just really wonderful. So I included almost all of it here. :)

"I looked up and saw... a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it... And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion wherever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden - trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well. I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells - like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not... So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe. But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So 1 scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe. Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said... "You will have to let me undress you." I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away... Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again... After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me... somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream." It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that "from that time forth Eustace was a different boy". To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

It reminds me of the idea from Mere Christianity - how we have to try our very hardest and then turn it over to God:
"We cannot... discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, "You must do this. I can't."

and, also from Mere Christianity, Lewis' words on how painful it is to become New:
"The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says "...I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good... Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours." ... We must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time."

"Who is Aslan? Do you know him?"
"Well - he knows me," said Edmund.

Read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader here!