66 pages • 2 hours read
C. S. LewisA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The novel’s narrator, who is also the protagonist, comes the closest of any of the characters to being a round, fully developed figure, but even he does not quite meet this description. Lewis’s purpose is not to show character arcs but rather to explicate Christian doctrines through narrative. Allegory usually does not involve the same level of character development as other genres because characters must represent something rather than contain all the complexities of real people.
Although the reader learns next to nothing about the narrator’s personal life, we do know that, like Lewis himself but unlike most of the Ghosts the narrator encounters, the narrator seems to already be a Christian or at least strongly inclined toward accepting Christianity. He says that MacDonald’s Phantastes set him on a path toward seriously considering Christian faith and doctrines (66-67). Also, based on the fact that the young poet in Chapter 2 seems to recognize the narrator and value his opinion about writing, the reader can surmise that the narrator is a famous writer on Earth, like Lewis.
While the narrator’s biography matches Lewis’s in many ways, he functions more as an everyman than a stand-in for Lewis; the narrator voices questions and concerns that people frequently raise about Christian doctrine.
By C. S. Lewis
A Grief Observed
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet
C. S. Lewis
Perelandra
C. S. Lewis
Prince Caspian
C. S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy
C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man
C. S. Lewis
The Discarded Image
C. S. Lewis
The Four Loves
C. S. Lewis
The Horse And His Boy
C. S. Lewis
The Last Battle
C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
C. S. Lewis
The Pilgrim's Regress
C. S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
The Silver Chair
C. S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C. S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces
C. S. Lewis
Allegories of Modern Life
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Christian Literature
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Fear
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Forgiveness
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Good & Evil
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Grief
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Order & Chaos
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Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
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Religion & Spirituality
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Required Reading Lists
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Trust & Doubt
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Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
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