the bracelet and the dragon's skin

[Powl']

Ok, I was reading VotDT and I was wondering: How did Eustace take off all the dragon's skins if the bracelet was stuck on his arm ?? that was weird ... :confused:

do you have an explanation ??:)

[Xenithar]

I suppose he could have pulled all the skin out from under it. Kind of an icky thought, but I couldn't really think of any other ways...unless the bracelet could open and close or something like that.

[~Lava~]

I got the feeling that he pulled it off in the same manner that on pulls off footy-pjs. He "unzipped" and then stepped out of it, thus the bracelet came off with the first skin.

[Powl']

maybe, but it's still not very clear ... didn't you notice that ?

[Lady Callandra]

but I thought the bracelet didn't come off with the first skin....0.o...And as for the taking off the skin, I always had the image that he flaked off the scales and then peeled off the skin. Well, that's the image they gave in the BBC version, so that's the image that's been stuck in my mind for all these years. :rolleyes:

[PrinceOfTheWest]

I don't think that's very clearly addressed in the story. If the arm ring had come off when Eustace shed his first skin, surely he would have remarked on it ("So it turns out that was all I had to do!") But that wouldn't have been consistent with Lewis' lesson: that Eustace was in a fix that he could not get himself out of. All Eustace could do was strip himself of one or more externals (i.e. skins) - his nature was still dragonish.

It stands to reason that when Aslan stripped him of his dragon nature and extracted the human within, that the arm ring would have remained on the arm of the dragon, since the ring was a curse that went with his dragonish nature. What's intriguing is that Eustace was still wearing it when he returned to the camp - Aslan either gave it to him, or caused it to appear on his arm. The interesting thing to notice is the difference between Eustace's response when he first handles the treasure and how he treats it in the end.

[MrBob]

Aslan clawed the dragon skin off. This is Aslan that we are talking about. I think Aslan, with his deep gashes to get the skin, could easily rip under the bracelt to get the skin off.

As for Eustace's attempts, it wasn't as if he sheded his skin like a snake molts. He described it as scratching his scales off, with them going all over the place. Wouldhe have been able to get under the bracelet? Probably after getting rid of the skin directly above and below it.

MrBob

[Powl']

oh, it's still not clear to me, even if Aslan took the skins off himself, I remember the book says the bracelt was still on Eustace's arm, maybe I'm wrong ... :confused:

[PrinceOfTheWest]

You'll have to face the fact that this was something Lewis didn't clearly address. We know Eustace the Dragon had the arm ring stuck on his leg, we know that Aslan ultimately ripped the "dragon skin" off Eustace, and we know that when Eustace showed up back at the camp, the arm ring was loosely about his arm. We don't know anything more than that.

My speculation is what I've already stated: that when Aslan peeled off Eustace's dragon form, the arm band went with it. I'd guess that if Eustace had looked carefully at the removed dragon skin, he would have seen the glitter of gold about the left foreleg. Somehow Aslan caused it to get back on his arm, probably when He dressed Eustace (an event about which Eustace was unclear), as a reminder of what his old nature had valued, and what it had cost him.

[buckmana]

Well, I imagine when Aslan peeled off his "dragon skin", his arm was much smaller and the bracelet just fell off his arm.

Besides, there was no inherent curse on the bracelet, it's was Eustace's own greed that turned him into a dragon.

[PrinceOfTheWest]

Either it fell off, or it went with the skin. You're right, though - it wasn't as if the bracelet was cursed. The curse was the dragon form.

[Powl']

yeah right ... or maybe he cut with his nails the skin and could take it off, I don't remember any details ...

[~Lava~]

In the book, the problem with his skins coming off is not that he couldn't get them off because the Bracelet was on him still, it was that Aslan had told Eustace to undress and he could not rid himself of the greed and poor behavior that the Dragon Skin represented by himself (just like humans could not restore themselves in God's sight) Aslan had to remove the remaining skin (just like Jesus had to restore humans).

The reason that I said that the bracelet came off with the first skin is a quote from the book:
And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully... as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down....

In my previous post I mentioned footies, if you have ever worn them you know that you have to open the zipper (the equivalent of Eustace scratching deeper and starting to peel off his whole skin) and then step out of them. As a child, I wore footies a lot and my siblings and I would put rubber bands and other stuff over top of our footies; no matter what we put on, we found that we could still slip our feet out of the footies. I maintain that this is so for Eustace with the bracelet on his leg.

this site has a whole bunch of pictures of footies if you are unfamiliar with them (http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=3&q=http://www.pajamacity.com/&usg=AFQjCNH7U2YDYnVWZLdt6djL6hOzQfQLJA)