Mainly The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,
but some of my points could carry over to other books in the series as well. Reading the books as a child, I of course
enjoyed the fantasy narrative and picked up on the religious allegory, but it
wasn’t until I revisited the stories as an adult that I noticed some intriguing
parallels with British imperialism. A
bit of history – The Chronicles of Narnia
was published in the early to mid ‘50s, very shortly after India’s independence,
and C.S. Lewis himself came of age as the empire was declining after World War
I. As such he would have had been very
aware of the British colonies around the globe, and this undoubtedly would have
influenced his attitudes.
And so,
we come to Narnia. When the Pevensies
arrive, it’s mostly populated by non-humans: fauns, dwarves, centaurs, assorted talking
animals, and so on. As “Sons of Adam and
Daughters of Eve,” the Pevensies are extremely out of place. In fact, biologically speaking, they have the
most in common with the White Witch who rules Narnia with a magic-wielding fist. At any rate, to the Pevensies, the Narnians
are races of “others.” They react to
this otherness in different ways – Lucy takes to Narnia like a fish to water,
for instance, and Edmund is suspicious and unsettled – but the people of Narnia
are exotic, unlike them.
Now,
Narnia has suffered under the Witch for years, but until the Pevensies come
along, not much is done about it. There’s
talk of Aslan being “on the move” and a number of Narnians who align themselves
against the Witch, but there doesn’t seem to be an organized resistance movement
before the four children appear. (It’s a
bit vague, since by the time they trek across Narnia, Aslan is back on the
scene with an amassed army, but it seems many are spurred to action by the hope
that the Pevensies are the humans prophesied to defeat the Witch.) So, it’s this weird situation where this
entire kingdom, which apparently includes plenty of trained soldiers, is powerless
to better their lives until these outsiders show up to organize and lead them.
Yep –
years of fear and oppression, and the Pevensies (alongside Aslan, of course)
oust the Witch and free Narnia in a shockingly timely fashion. And once Narnia is out from under the thumb
of the malevolent Witch (a foreign outsider in Narnia herself,) who do they
appoint as their new monarchs?
Centaurs? Talking animals? Nymphs or dryads or fauns? Nope, it’s the four humans. School children who’ve only just arrived, never
ruled, and only once fought in battle, are deemed the most fit to run the
country. (I know Aslan is the “rightful King
of Narnia,” but he’s not really their monarch; he’s their god. For day-to-day governance, Narnia is in the
hands of the school kids.)
Why can’t
the Narnians rule themselves? Why are
untested children from an unknown world considered preferable to homegrown
citizens? There’s never even a question
of putting a Narnian on the throne, and when humans become more common (though
still nonnative) in Narnia in later books, the exclusively human rulers
persist. It doesn’t make sense, until
you think of those “poor” Indian, Chinese, and Irish people who “needed”
England to come in and save them from themselves. Following this British narrative, the natives
are grateful and loving to their benevolent colonizers, and the Pevensies are
indeed adored rulers. It’s a startling
parallel when you notice it, made even clearer by the fact that the Pevensies
are so obviously unqualified for the job, but I’d bet money that Lewis never so
much as realized he was doing it.
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