Comparing The Phenomenon Of The Lion, The Children, And Jesus

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Salik S. Tehami Ms. Franz English II PAP/A1 23 February 2013 The Lion, the Children, and Jesus: How C.S. Lewis Created a Phenomenon Very few people in the history of humankind transcend their era’s stigmas and nomenclature to truly establish themselves among the pantheon of ever-living personalities that forever leave their mark on human thinking. Included in the London Time’s list of the most influential people of the 20th century amongst the likes of Pope John XXIII, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Edison, Clive Staples Lewis was one of those few people in the history of humankind. Many of his life’s trials influenced him, with respect to his religious affiliation, his love for children, and his desire for creativity, to create the commercially successful and critically acclaimed series,…show more content…
His outlet to the emotional turmoil in his life at the time was creating stories with his brother, which always featured anthropomorphic animals in the fictional kingdom of Boxen (Downing). The emotional impact of his mother’s death led to his deep remission of the Christian faith, which eventually resulted in his conversion to atheism and his initial love of European mythology (Downing). Lewis became widely familiar with medieval Norse literature, an influence that is reflected throughout the books in the series, most prominently in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Ward). This entire book imitates one of the immrama, a type of traditional Old Irish tale that combines elements of Irish mythology to tell the story of a hero's sea journey to the Otherworld (Brady). Medieval Ireland also had a tradition of High Kings ruling over lesser kings and queens or princes, as did Narnia. Lewis's term "Cair," as in Cair Paravel (the location of the castle in the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), also mirrors "Caer", or "fortress" in the Welsh language (Brennan). The small boat of Reepicheep (an anthropomorphic mouse

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