"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a Religious Allegory Comparison Essay by scribbler
"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a Religious Allegory
A comparison of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" with Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" and J.K.Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".
# 152484
| 1,869 words
| 9 sources
| MLA
| 2013
| 
Published
on Feb 21, 2013
in
Literature
(Children)
, Literature
(English)
, Literature
(Comparative Literature)
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Description:
The paper discusses how "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis has long been viewed as a religious allegory that deals specifically with one of the seven deadly sins, gluttony. The paper analyzes the allegorical elements of this story but points out that the most important element, which is the author's purpose to make it allegorical, is absent. The paper contrasts the "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" with Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass", and notes that Pullman set out with the goal of making a counter allegory of Lewis' work, and so his work can certainly be defined as an allegory. The paper also compares "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to J.K.Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and highlights the similarities between these two works.
From the Paper:
"Lewis, undoubtedly, was Christian; that was not a secret; he, himself, believed in heaven and hell (Wheat 2007, 12). The Christian themes of Lewis's work is something that Philip Pullman parodied in his work The Golden Compass. Pullman's novel is similar to the story of Narnia in that, while the college setting seems familiar to us, Lyra's world is not the same as ours (like Narnia), which we immediately see upon meting Lyra's daemon. The daemon as well as where Lyra and her daemon hide is also similar to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but while the world in which Lyra and the Pevensie family are in is similar (in that they are not our world), the sentiments of the two books could not be more different. This difference in sentiment can be seen in just one line from Pullman's book: "Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which their lies such wide-eyed conviction" (Pullman 2006, 247)."Pullman wrote The Golden Compass as part of his own trilogy entitled His Dark Materials as an "antireligious fantasy that refutes The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" (Wheat 2007, 63). Pullman's story is allegorical, however, in that it is the classic tale of good versus evil and it also is a counter allegory to Lewis's work as Pullman basically set out to expose God as a fraud."
Sample of Sources Used:
- Bernstein, Theodore M. The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage. New York: Atheneum, 1985. p. 393.
- Heilman, Elizabeth E. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter. New York: Routledge; 2nd edition, 2008.
- Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: Harper-Collins, 2009.
- Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass (Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition) (His Dark Materials, Book 1). New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006.
- Rosin, Hanna. "How Hollywood Saved God." December, 2007. The Atlantic. Retrieved on June 6, 2010, from the Web site: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/12/how-hollywood-saved- god/6444/
Cite this Comparison Essay:
APA Format
"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a Religious Allegory (2013, February 21)
Retrieved June 03, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/comparison-essay/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-as-a-religious-allegory-152484/
MLA Format
""The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a Religious Allegory" 21 February 2013.
Web. 03 June. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/comparison-essay/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-as-a-religious-allegory-152484/>