The Text I Chose Is – “The Chronicles of Narnia” series

By: C. S. Lewis

“The Chronicles of Narnia” is a seen book series written by Clive Staples Lewis starting in 1950 with “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”. It follows stories and events of a magical land and its interactions between both people from outside the world and from within. Its main message told throughout the course of the seven separate novels is that of doing the right and moral thing, preaching the necessity of family, friends and loyalty, and most of all heroism in its many forms. As for its prevalence in the Canon, it is considered one of the classics of literature, though its more prevalent on the list of children’s classics, and it is on the reading list for many English classes in schools throughout the west and on the book shelves of many children’s rooms.

Though it’s main audience is children “The Chronicles of Narnia” also appeal to a wide range of ages, demographics and backgrounds not only for its adventurous and magical storytelling but also for its deeper meanings, symbolisms, themes and classical allusions. It’s these deeper meanings, that I would like to explore throughout the project as well as the meanings effects on both the text and the readers. I read the first two novels in sixth grade and grew up with the stories overall and since then I’ve been fascinated with the many and many deeper messages and morals the series seems to teach, so when confronted with this project the series came to my mind simply because it gave me a chance to look at the fundamental judgments of what’s right and wrong that it passes to its readers and how those lessons seem echoed in our society as well. When looking up the text in the MLA Database, here at the College of Charleston I was meet with two hundred and twenty-two results upon first search alone. Then I found seven thousand four hundred and ninety results when checking with Google Scholar. Many of these results supported my opinions on the deeper layers that exist below the surface of this twentieth century fairy tale.