The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe By C.S. Lewis. Adult Discussion Questions Week 3 Chapters 9-11

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1 The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe By C.S. Lewis Adult Discussion Questions Week 3 Chapters 9-11 Introductions: Introduce yourselves again to remind folks of names (especially if there are folks new to the discussion session.) Warm-Up: Spring comes each year and is a living sign of hope. In this section of reading, Aslan is on the move and this brings spring. What is your favorite thing about spring? OR What are some other signs of hope in your lives/this world? CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: Pick just a few questions to reflect upon, discuss, or about which to privately journal. Reflection Questions of the Story: 1. In fantasies, Campbell talks about the role of a super-natural aid such as weather to move and change a story. We see super-natural aids throughout this book. Super-natural aids become a catalyst and at times are as present as a story character. a) Where do you see supernatural aids at play in the book? b) Why do you imagine Lewis used them the way he did? 2. In chapter 11 Lewis depicts the change from winter to spring. It is the longest description in the book and said to show Lewis s powerful writing style. a) What does or does not make this description powerful? Reflections: Making Faith Connections James 1: (CEV) (Choose one or two of the following to discuss) 13 Don t blame God when you are tempted! God cannot be tempted by evil, and God doesn t use evil to tempt others. 14 We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. 15 Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead. 1. The very real struggle with sin and evil in our world a. The book says, There s nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food, (88). 1

2 Throughout several of Lewis work he talks about the condition of an increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure. He emphasizes that there is good in the ordinary and that particular cravings steal that from us. When and why do we miss the good in the ordinary? b. Lewis provides a detailed set of circumstances and motivations that help readers understand how Edmond progresses from mere rudeness to full betrayal. Consider the following: How Edmund misinterpret the actions of his siblings (88). His own personality and motivations and the circumstances from the beginning of the book until this point. What Edmond rationalizes or justifies. The power and actions of evil (the witch esp. 138). I. What does Edmond s descent teach us about how we can get off track? II. III. What does Edmond s descent teach us about sin and evil? What does Edmond teach us about the good and sin that coexist in a single human being? c. Edmond leaves his coat behind when he sneaks out of the Beavers house and most go continue on without one. Why does Lewis make this choice, and how does it play into his portrayal of the effects of sin and evil on us or in the world? d. Throughout many of Lewis writings he concludes that one of the most devastating effects of getting off track (sin) is isolation or disconnectedness. What are some examples in the news or in your own lives where the consequences of sin or evil illustrate the realty of isolation or disconnectedness? e. How do you feel about Edmond at this point in the story? Where have you seen some Edmond-like moments in your own life? f. When Edmund sees the lion in the Witch s courtyard, he is at first afraid. Then when he sees that the lion has been turned to stone he mocks it. i. Where does the impulse to tear down something that seems great, come from? To jeer and mock and deface? ii. Where else have you seen this impulse? g. The narrator tells us in Ch. 11 that Edmond, For the first time in this story, felt sorry for someone besides himself. Edmond felt sorry for the witch s punishment of the celebrating animals and creatures. i. What has Edmond been concerned about up until this moment and why? ii. Why do you think this is such an important moment in the story? 2

3 iii. Has there ever been a time in your life, that living and offering compassion was difficult? h. Why do you think Edmund found it easier to put his faith in the White Witch than in Aslan? Why do people today find it easier to put their trust in other things (like themselves or achievement or ) rather than God? i) At what point in this chapter do you think Edmund might have guessed that he would need saving from the witch that he would need what we call at church saving grace? j) In chapter 11, when Edmond is pulling the sledge through the mud, he realizes that he has made a major mistake. Commentators say this is the turning point, the point at which Edmond has a change of heart. He begins to move, step-by-step toward goodness that will carry him through the rest of the book. Based on what you ve read this week, do you see signs of this? Isaiah 11:1-3 Like a branch or shoot that sprouts from a stump, someone from David s family will someday be king. The Spirit of the Lord will be with him to give him understanding, wisdom, and insight. He will be powerful, and he will know and honor the Lord. His greatest joy will be to obey the Lord. 2. Christmas and Spring come to the Never-ending Winter The above scripture is read at Christmas time. The family tree of King David (Jesse s son), the one to whom an everlasting kingdom had been promised seemed dried up and dead as an old tree stump. But from unlikely ground, a sign (sprig) of hope was shooting up. We read that sign that comes from that family tree, as Jesus. a) What does the birth of Christ bring to this world? How does this compare to the signs that Aslan has come to Narnia? b) Why do you think winter with no Christmas is considered hell? c) When Lewis brings Christmas or the birth/presence of Christ to Narnia he includes Father Christmas. i. How is Father Christmas different or similar to our Santa Claus? ii. iii. Why do you think Lewis used Father Christmas in the story? Why do you imagine a whole host of critics thought the use of Father Christmas in this story was critically misguided? d) Why is the Witch so threatened by the fact that Father Christmas has been to Narnia? 3

4 e) What do you imagine each gift to the children might symbolize? f) Compare and contrast the children s and the witch s experience of spring emerging and winter thawing. i. What does it tell us of the characters? ii. What does it tell us about how we may or may not respond to iii. the hope Christ brings? When was a time when you had a hard time seeing or embracing signs of hope in your own kind of winter? g) Have you ever experienced a kind of hope that seems too good to be true? 3. The Witch is nasty, but she gets Edmund to stop sulking, apologize, and eat his stale bread politely. What does this tell us about the power of fear? 4. Lewis closes chapter eleven with the Witch forbidding the mention of Aslan s name (122). When we return to Edmond s story in chapter thirteen the Witch s dwarf will be careful to use a pronoun in place of the name Aslan. In the Old Testament, the faithful did not use God s name because it is too holy. a. Why do you think the witch forbid the use of Aslan s name? b. What was she trying to accomplish? c. There are many places that we do not or will not use God s name, it is regulated, or we wish to see it regulated. What are the reasons? Reflections: The BIG Question (Theological Reading and Discussion) Totally without hope one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness. It is no accident that above the entrance to Dante's hell is the inscription: "Leave behind all hope, you who enter here. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope 1. Can we live without hope? Is a true definition of hell, life without hope? Why or why not? That is why faith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope 4

5 1. Hope emerges in Narnia in this section of our reading. What are the effects of hope in Narnia and on the characters? How do the effects of hope emerging in Narnia align or contradict with this quote? 2. This passage connects faith and hope. How do you understand their connection? 3. When have you experienced hope that brings unrest, uneasiness, or a sense of contradiction? 4. This quote paints a picture of why hope in Christ (the foundation and reason for our hope) is so radical. Do you agree or disagree with the radical nature of hope in Christ. Why or why not? 5