Sin
One thing that I found particularly interesting in the Magician’s Nephew written by Lewis was the idea of sin. In the Christian world, Eve has always been the subject of blame. Eve was the one who tempted Adam into eating the apple therefore she is responsible for their expulsion from Eden. When Adam and Eve bit into the apple, sin was brought into the world. In the Magician’s Nephew Digory is responsible for bringing sin into the brand new world of Narnia. Digory’s curiosity, when he was in Charn with Polly, got the best of him. As soon as he rang the bell and awoke Queen Jadis he released evil. I personally believe that Lewis meant for Jadis to be an allegory of sin in all the books that she appears in. The children know that the Queen is evil from the start; especially once she tells the children that she killed everyone in her world with the deplorable word. I am sure Polly really wanted to tell Digory, “I told you so!” The children do try to ditch Queen Jadis but what they do not realize is that evil is a lot harder to get rid of than they think. In our world once you sin it stays with you and all that can be done about it is asks for forgiveness from God.
Thankfully after the Queen wreaks havoc in London the children get her back to the woods between the worlds and try and get her back into Charn. Once the children jump with everyone back in the pool they believe to be Charn they are instantly surprised to see that they are surrounded by darkness. They have entered a brand new world and they have brought sin into it. When Digory meets Aslan, Digory is given a task for bringing this evil into his brand new world. Aslan tells Digory that he must fly very far away to a garden that is placed on top of a hill and retrieve an apple, but he is told not to take anything else but one apple and he may not eat it. It is clear that Lewis is making a reference to the Garden of Eden, when he sends Digory on his mission. Polly and the horse Strawberry, that get accidently brought to Narnia with the witch, Uncle Andrew, and the Cabby, accompany Digory on his task. Once they arrive to the garden only Digory enters. To his surprise Digory was not alone once he enters. Jadis is eating all the forbidden apples and she tries to tempt Digory into eating one and becoming immortal and to take one back to his dying mother in London. Digory seriously considers it but listens to Aslan and returns an apple to him untouched. To me when Jadis tempts Digory into eating the apple, she is representing the serpent from the story of Adam and Eve. This part of the story has always intrigued me because in our world Eve has always been the blame for bringing sin into our world, but in Lewis’s world it is Adam who is responsible for bringing sin into Narnia. If Lewis was still alive I would love to ask him why he chose for the son of Adam to be responsible for bringing sin into the world. It also seems that Eve or in this case Polly is left out of the scene, even though she is with Digory she doesn’t get to enter into the garden and she tried to stop him from ringing the bell. I want to know why Lewis flipped the story like this, even though Digory redeems himself by bringing back the apple to Aslan it is still curious to me why he flipped the story.
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