Maddie Mukensturm

March 19, 2014

English 11B
Book Review
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
I read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The author of this book is C.S
Lewis, a man that is from Belfast in the United Kingdom. The publisher of this book is
Geoffrey Bless. The book was written and published in the 1950s. This book is a novel,
its a fast read. The genre of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is childrens
literature. The book was later turned into a movie in 2005.
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was not the rst book that C.S. Lewis had
written, he wrote numerous books before this one. The author does not tell why he
wanted to write this book so I did some research online. There was an article written
about C.S Lewis and it says that he had a hard time trying to start writing but as soon as
he got the character Aslan in the book the pages started to y by. Lewis was starting to
think about all the different parts of Narnia and gured he needed to go farther into
details and explain things. This soon lead to the writings of The Chronicles of Narnia.
The author intended this book for children sense it is about mystical creatures and
made up things. You have to have a big imagination to read this book.
There are many themes for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I found
throughout reading this book that some of the themes are faith, rebirth, and even doing
the impossible. Faith is shown throughout this book by the three kids nding Narnia in
the rst place. There are four main characters in this book, they are Peter, Susan,
Edmund, and Lucy. They nd out that there is a evil witch, her name is the White Witch.
She is the meanest of all because she is not human. They nd that because she is not
human that is why she has not both good and evil in her body, but only evil. Not only is
she trying to take over the town, but in the land of Narnia she makes it so that it is
always winter, but it is never Christmas. The character Aslan is the protagonist of this
book. He is the noble golden lion, returns to Narnia so that he can break the White
Witches spell and Christmas will then arrive. Aslan is the king of Narnia and the son of
the emperor. The theme rebirth is shown in this book when Aslan is resurrected and
there is a nal battle between the White Witch and Aslan and his followers. The theme
doing the impossible is shown in the book from the start. What they thought was
impossible, for the land of Narnia to just appear in a Wardrobe that they nd by its self in
the attic, happened. The thesis of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe would be; The
desire to explore and become new things. I think this is a good thesis statement
because the kids nd the wardrobe in the rst place by exploring the house that they
were in. They become new things because they become strong and faithful throughout
the book by trying to defeat the evil White Witch.
The author C.S. Lewis one method of development, which is Narration.
Throughout the book is is telling it in a chronological order, but in third person. He
explains the thoughts of all of the characters in the book when they have a position in it.
The narrator of the story is telling it in third person but throughout the book he does use
the word I. For example in the book there is a scene that Susan and Lucy are crying
over Aslan when he is dead, and before he is resurrected and it says, "I hope no one
who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that
night" (15.8). This kind of shows the author putting in his opinion in the book. But in the
book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, the author is telling the story in third person,
as an over view of what happens throughout.
I liked this book because I found it to be an easy quick read. If you like mystical
creatures and made up things then this would be a book that you would want to read.
This book is denitely a ction, nding a wardrobe in an attic and opening it to nd a
mystical place called Narnia, would not happen in real life! I have not read any other
books written by C.S. Lewis, so I could not compare it. I am actually not a person to
read nonctional books, for example a documentary. I like ction books because it can
really show you the imagination that the author has.
I did some research on C.S. Lewis and I found that he was friends with J.R.R.
Tolkien, another author. Tolkien had read some of his work before it was published. He
read parts of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. Lewis was part of a book club that
was called the Inklings, and they would do some writings and then share them with
each other so that they could get feedback from other authors as well.
So a brief overview of what happens in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
would be there are three main characters. Their names are Peter, Lucy, and Susan.
They are playing hide and seek in a house and Lucy, the youngest girl nds a wardrobe
in the attic that she wants to hide in. When she opens the wardrobe she nds this
mystical place that they later nd out is called Narnia. Lucy then meats the character
that is named Faun Tumnus. He is the one that explains to Lucy what Narnia is and how
the witch has made it always winter but never Christmas. Lucy leaves Narnia and
comes back out through the wardrobe. Then Lucy tries telling her siblings about Narnia
and the wardrobe, but they dont believe her. Edmund then sees Lucy disappear into the
wardrobe, and then follows her. Edmund then meets the White Witch and she explains
to him that she is the Queen of Narnia. Later on in the book the White Witch ends up
trying to kill Edmund and scaries his life. But later you will nd that the golden lion
Aslan sacrices his life for Edmund. The at the end there is a twist to the story that the
author put and will make you not want to put the book down!