The Last Battle: Chapters 1 - 5

  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published in 1950, after which six other stories followed detailing as many returns to and adventures in Narnia for the four Pervensie children, now kings and queens.  The Last Battle, the final one, was published in 1956.  It ends with a sense of final triumph and pure joy that, to me, has no rival in literature.


Certainly one of the effects of reading the Narnia tales is to instill within one a strong sense of repugnance for evil and the subtle ways it works to ensare a person.  That purpose is especially apparent in The Last Battle. There are as well several characteristics pointing to the end of an age.


The first chapter does an excellent job of setting the tone of the tale.  Shift the ape is a master of deceit, and Puzzle the donkey eptomizes innocence and naivate.  Note how the reader is instilled with both fascination and disgust with Shift’s clever manipulation of Puzzle, and both wonder and sympathy for Puzzle.  


The chapters that follow show the dire consequences of his cunning deception. It is wide-spread, accepted by the masses: they have little conception of the true nature of Aslan and accept the brutal, self-serving commands of Shift as being truth.  They come to see Tash as simply another name for Aslan.


It’s quite clear that Lewis is anticipatng the end of the age, attempting to describe the nature of the spirit of anti-Christ and warning against its pervasive power.  Biblical passages come to mind, such as Christ’s warning in Matt. 23 of the coming of the “abomination of desolation,” Paul’s description of the anti-Christ in II Thess. 2, and John’s warning in I John 4.   One may think of contemporary attempts to equate Allah with the God of the Bible. And the binding of King Tirian suggests the helplessness of upright government. 


DOES ANY OTHER BIBLICAL IMAGERY COME TO MIND, OR ANY THING ELSE RELEVANT TO OUR OWN TIMES?


But Tirian is rescued by the appearance of Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole, the two whose story of their entrance into Narnia was told in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They then approach a tower in which they find supplies and ready themselves for coming battles.


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