Prodigals

[Mozart the Meerkitten]

Ok how this came about is that in Church we're talking about the story of the prodigal son and I was thinking about how much some people in books are like the prodigal son. One I thought of was Edmund, he betrayed his siblings (and all good in Narnia) and yet he was welcomed back eagerly.
Then today I was thinking a little deeper about it and I wondered if some other people in the Chronicals could be considered prodigals. Susan in the Last Battle reminded me of the older son in the story, because she stopped believing in Narnia and refused to even accept that there might be a Narnia. Another person who may be considered a prodigal from the Narnia books would be Eustace.

Anywho, I was wondering what you all thought about this. Are people in the Narnia books like some people in the story of the prodigal son? If so who would those people be and who would they represent? I know Narnia isn't supposed to be an allegory, but I was only wondering.

[PrinceOfTheWest]

Well, even if the stories aren't strict allegories, there would still be some equivalents because human nature just is a certain way.

You're right that Edmund and Eustace are the obvious ones - Edmund more blatantly and Eustace a little less so (it's not like he ran away from a good situation, but he was a fool and a mocker who was welcomed into the Kingdom.) To me, it seems a bit of a stretch to compare Susan to the Older Son, since she clearly left Narnia - it seems to me like she'd be a Younger Son who never returned.

Another parallel, though a looser one, would be Shasta in The Horse And His Boy. He was kidnapped from his father's house rather than choosing to run away, and he certainly didn't land in "prodigal" (i.e. extravagant and wasteful) circumstances, but he did return to his father and have his true inheritance restored.

Another loose parallel would be Rilian from The Silver Chair. Though he was kidnapped and enchanted, that was only possible because he was foolish and fell prey to the witch's enticements. But he, too, was restored to his rightful inheritance.

[Copperfox]

Trumpkin might be a very loose parallel, insofar as he disbelieved in Aslan's existence until he got to meet Him in person. Or, more sadly, Nikabrik is like a prodigal who DIDN'T come to repentance.

[PrinceOfTheWest]

One thing that's hard about this is that the Prodigal Son paradigm isn't the only one in Scripture, so it's hard to try to fit everything into that mold. There are plenty more: the obedient and disobedient sons (Matt 21:28-30), the wicked judge and persistent woman (Luke 18:2-5), the varied types of soil (Mark 4), the wise and foolish virgins (Matt 25), and so forth. It might be more of a challenge to see what parabolic figures a certain Narnian character might represent. Or you could expand the thought to other Biblical characters - for example, if I had to find a parallel to Aravis in Scripture, it would probably be Ruth.

[EveningStar]

I've always rather thought of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver as Simeon and Anna who lived for the day when they would see the prophesied deliverer and were the first in the temple to recognize him.

Oddly, not all my comparisons have been to the Bible. I think of Puddleglum the Marshwiggle as Ray Bolger's Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz.

Scarecrow: "First they ripped off my legs and they threw them over there! Then they pulled out my chest and threw it over there!"

Tin Man: "Yeah, that's you all over..."

[Copperfox]

Then there are explicitly Christian comparisons to be found outside the actual texts of inspired Scripture.

In Milton's "Paradise Lost," when Satan first comes to the newly-created Earth and sees the unfallen Eve, her beauty and unstained innocence have an effect even on the Archfiend: for a moment, he feels (very rightly) ashamed of himself for the ruination he plans to bring upon her and Adam...and he ALMOST repents of his plans.

Mr. Lewis was intimately familiar with all of John Milton's writings. When Lewis depicted Uncle Andrew, in "The Magician's Nephew," encountering the innocent new creatures in the newly-created Narnian world, Andrew never had even AS MUCH stirring of conscience over what he would have liked to do to those creatures, as Milton's Devil had over the planned fall of Adam and Eve. So Mr. Lewis must have regarded Uncle Andrew as VERY despicable indeed...for he very rightly saw as despicable the social trends which were embodied in this fictional character.