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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.
“Better tell a lie, old chap, better tell a lie. Easiest for all concerned.”
In advising John to lie, the Steward—a figure of authority who upholds truth and integrity and enforces the rules set by the Landlord—reveals the hypocrisy and fear-based control in Puritania. In his opening chapter, Lewis establishes the spiritual doubt and discontent that John feels in the religious community of his childhood, emphasizing the need for his titular quest.
“There in the grass beside him sat a laughing brown girl of about his own age, and she had no clothes on. ‘It was me you wanted,’ said the brown girl. ‘I am better than your silly Islands.’”
Lewis uses the motif of “brown girls” throughout the narrative to represent carnal distractions from the pursuit of spiritual truth—in this case, John’s quest for the Island. Lewis’s motif reflects a common, misogynistic trope of Christian allegory that positions women as sexual temptresses attempting to dissuade a pious man from his true spiritual calling. Here, the girl in the woods dismisses John’s spiritual longing as “silly,” introducing a distraction of immediate sexual gratification that temporarily distracts John from the abstract yearning for the Island.
“‘There is no Landlord?’ ‘There is absolutely no such thing—I might even say no such entity—in existence. There never has been and never will be.’”
The categorical denial of the Landlord’s existence by Mr. Enlightenment represents a radical form of skepticism, highlighting Lewis’s Critique of Modern Philosophical and Cultural Trends. For John, who has lived under constant fear of the Landlord’s rules and punishments, Mr.
By C. S. Lewis
A Grief Observed
A Grief Observed
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet
C. S. Lewis
Perelandra
Perelandra
C. S. Lewis
Prince Caspian
Prince Caspian
C. S. Lewis
Surprised by Joy
Surprised by Joy
C. S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man
The Abolition of Man
C. S. Lewis
The Discarded Image
The Discarded Image
C. S. Lewis
The Four Loves
The Four Loves
C. S. Lewis
The Great Divorce
The Great Divorce
C. S. Lewis
The Horse And His Boy
The Horse And His Boy
C. S. Lewis
The Last Battle
The Last Battle
C. S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew
C. S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Pain
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters
C. S. Lewis
The Silver Chair
The Silver Chair
C. S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C. S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces
Till We Have Faces
C. S. Lewis