The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Mrs. Beaver bakes a “great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll” that both satiates the children’s hunger and delights their senses (83). Food features as an important motif in the novel. Trace the appearance of food and consider how Lewis’s use of food imagery changes as the plot progresses.

Certain aspects of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe have been read as Christian allegory. Identify two chapters in the novel that employ religious symbolism and analyze them, strengthening your answer with textual support.

Lewis employs bildungsroman character arcs that trace Lucy Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, and Peter Pevensie from childhood into adulthood. Choose one of the four siblings and examine how their character develops over the course of the novel.

When Aslan dies, the narrator addresses the reader: “I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night” (171). Consider Lewis’s use of narrative voice and the effect it has throughout the novel.

Compare and contrast Aslan and the White Witch. Do their characters carry any symbolic significance? Explain.

Lewis anthropomorphizes a number of Narnian animals. Why do you think Lewis chooses to use speaking animals as supporting characters? What effect does this have?

Father Christmas tells both Lucy and Susan that “battles are ugly when women fight” (119). To what extent does The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe depend on patriarchal norms? Support your answer with textual analysis.

When the siblings return from Narnia, it is “the same day and the same hour of the day on which they had all gone into the wardrobe to hide” (202). Why do you think Lewis gives Narnia its own timeline? Is it important that the siblings return to Earth as children rather than adults?