Narnia by C.S. Lewis + Comparing the author with J. R. R. Tolkien

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) is an author. He´s most famous books is the Narnia books. There are seven books. The lion the witch and the wardrobe, prince Caspian, The voyage of the dawn treader, the silver chair, the horse and his boy, the magicians nephew and the last battle. The Narnia books and all of his other books show influences by his religious beliefs. The author has sold over 100 million books.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Movie)

This is the first Narnia books made into a movie. The movie is about two brothers and their two sisters: Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. They leave to a professors house when their city is stricken by WW2. While they are at the professors house they find a wardrobe leading into a different world. In this world(Narnia), they meet a beaver who tells them to travel towards Aslan, their savior. Edmund, the second youngest of the siblings leave the group to go see the white witch and she captures him. The rest of the siblings decides to go see Aslan for help on getting their brother back. On the way to Aslan they meet Santa Clause and some other animals. The witch´s secret police(wolves) go to find the siblings and bring them back to the witch, but Aslans army Kills the wolves and follows one of them back to save Edmund. Later on, the witch travel to Aslans camp to explain to the group that Edmund shall die since he betrayed their brothers. Aslan sacrifices himself and the rest of the group goes to fight the witch and her huge army. The fight goes badly for the good guys until Aslan wakes up from the dead and brings an army to finally defeat the witch. They do, and the movie ends with the siblings (30 years later) returning to the real world.

My thoughts on the movie

I am a big fan of Narnia, so i love the movie. The actors does their parts perfectly, especially the actors that played the siblings Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. I certainly enjoy the religious influences in the movie and how their were perfectly placed within the story at the perfect places. I feel safe saying that this movie is a masterpiece, nothing less. I must also say that i am grateful for obtaining the opportunity to see such a great movie in class.

Comparing J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

Tolkien and Lewis were close friends throughout most of their lives. Tolkien was the one who converted Lewis to Christianity, which has always been a big part of his writing. Lewis repaid this by pushing Tolkien to expand his fictional writing, which you can see the result of by reading his book The Children of Hùrin. Both Tolkien and Lewis taught at Oxford university and they were both interested in literature(they were both members of a group called the inklings together with several other famous authors). One of the big similarities between these to authors is the Christian themes and principles. It has also been revealed over time that they often had disagreements. These disagreements were often about the quality of the Narnia books.

Though Tolkien liked the concept of the Narnia books, he did not approve of the obvious Christian references in the book, the way Lewis struck the reader over the head with Christian symbols. The character Aslan for example who sacrifices himself for a traitor and rises from the dad for a last battle against evil, and then saves the world. Tolkien`s books also contain several Christian symbols and references, he spent far more time hiding it withing the writing, and therefore made it more invisible for the reader. Tolkien also complained about the characters in the Narnia books,there are talking animals, children and witches, while Tolkien designed his own creatures and therefore made it more original. 

All in all, Tolkien did not approve of Lewis`s books, since it could give the reader a false interpretation of the his Christian beliefs and therefore giving people the wrong idea about Christianity and the beliefs it contains. Another conflict also came to fruition when Lewis became a protestant Christian instead of following Tolkien`s beliefs, which lay with the catholic church.