Review of Related Studies

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter is divided into three subchapters including a review of related studies, w review of related theories, and a review of C.S Lewis’ life and works. The review of related studies concerns some criticism of C.S Lewis’ works, especially the ones related to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew so that the writer understands the position in doing research on symbols as the expression of C.S. Lewis’ Christianity. Then, the review of related theories exposes theories applied in the research, namely theories on symbol. The last subchapter gives an account of C.S Lewis’ biography, especially his life as a Christian, as the novel has such a close relation with author’s religious life.

A. Review of Related Studies

The Magician’s Nephew is the first of seven books in the series of The Chronicles of Narnia written by Clive Staples Lewis in 1966. Some critics have elaborated their ideas, reviews, or comments about the work of C.S Lewis in the form of Literary Criticism. One such study was done by Fransiska Oktoprimasakti, a student of the English Education Study Programme of Sanata Dharma University in 2001, through her thesis entitled C.S Lewis’s Novel, The Last Battle, as an allegory of the Biblical teaching of The Second Coming of Christ. Oktoprimasakti is interested in studying the novel of C.S Lewis as she finds him famous as a fantasy author who is remarkably able to transfer Christian teaching into his stories. In Lewis’ novel entitled The Last Battle, she wants to examine how the Biblical concept of the second coming of Christ is presented through several events and characters forming an allegory in the story. In addition, she also wants to analyze how the use of allegory can help readers understand Biblical concepts. After doing the research, Oktoprimasakti finds that Lewis developed the plot and characters in this novel creatively and attractively by expressing the the biblical concepts in the form of an allegory about the emergence of the false teaching leading Christians astray, the persecution which Christians will face, and the coming of Christ to judge and create new and eternal earth recorded in the book of revelation. The allegory is formed by the use of symbols for several characters and plots within the story as they share similar association as those in the Bible; the ape for the deceiver, Aslan as Jesus Christ, The Donkey as the vehicle for Jesus to come or to fulfill His work on the earth, the Seven Survivors as the persons faithful person to Aslan, and the Narnians as the common believers. Furthermore, the writer explained that the use of allegory has promoted a better understanding of the Biblical teaching of the second coming of Christ. It is because The Last Battle contains the teaching written in different books of the Bible which tends to be easier to follow as it presents attractive teaching using an imaginary land named Narnia and also talking creatures providing important clues to understanding the concepts. The writer also discusses that Lewis has made such simplification of the details through intrinsic elements in his story offering an easy approach to understand the Biblical concept of the second-coming of Christ. Based on these findings, the writer concludes that The Last Battle is such an excellent literary work as it provides enjoyable ways of learning a more enjoyable concept of the second coming of Christ Oktoprimasakti, 2001:viii In relation to Oktoprimasakti, Matt Brennan also conducts research on C.S Lewis’ work through his criticism entitled The Lion, The Witch, and The Allegory: An Analysis of Selected Narnia Chronicles. In his paper, Brennan examines the first of seven series of Narnia Chronicles entitled The Magician’s Nephew about how the author, C.S.Lewis, incorporates Biblical themes within the story in his children ’s literature. In this novel, the Biblical themes can be seen from the way Lewis tries to insert the creation story within the Book of Genesis in his effort to describe the creation of Narnia and how humans are associated with other worlds. In exploiting the creation story, however, Lewis uses some literary techniques so that the biblical narrative can appeal to a younger audience so that they can find it easier to understand and appreciate while they are enjoying their fantasy-story. The first technique can be seen from the use of the children as the main characters in the novel to describe everything. The use of this technique is significant as Brennan claims that it has established a rapport between his young audience and the creation-narrative. The second technique is the way Lewis does not try to directly parallel the story of Genesis in the creation process of Narnia. The writer proposes an idea that although Lewis draws some connection from the Biblical creation images, his primary goal is still patterning a childrens story from them. The third technique is seen from the personification of animals in the story as the inhabitants of Narnia. This is said to be a perfect vehicle to attract children to the story as they find the concept of animals as magical creatures to be more interesting than the historical account. Brennan states that those four techniques have made The Chronicles of Narnia succeed in transferring the biblical notion of creation to children. In addition, they also brought such uniqueness as the children’s fantasy novel so that it also becomes popular among students, adults, and even Christian Theologians Brennan, June 3th, 2013. Different from those two researchers who h ave related C.S Lewis’ work on religiosity, there are also some other undergraduate theses that try to examine Lewis’ works from different points of view. One of them was written by Margareth Aritonang, a student of the English Letters Department of Sanata University in 2007, through her thesis entitled A Re-Examination that Female Antagonists a re Representations of Misogyny in C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. She analyzes the depiction of the female antagonists in the seven books of C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia which has been thought to be a representation of hatred towards women as the result of the old-fashioned stereotyped view that males will always be stronger and braver than women or what she identifies by using the term “misogyny”. In her study, Aritonang proves that although the author portrays the male and the female antagonists equally, there is a tendency for the female protagonists in the novel to be assigned essential roles in changing the condition of Narnia from a good to a wrong setting. By looking at this fact, she then wonders if the issue of misogyny is an important attitude displayed by the author in his literary work. However, she also sees in her study that the author also attributes some of the female protagonists with good characteristics and also with important roles in the most heroic moments in the story Aritonang, 2007:78. Therefore, Aritonang concludes that the misogynistic accusation leveled at C.S Lewis in the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia is still unproven, so that it is worth re-evaluating Aritonang, 2007:x. Another criticism was also made by Derdiana Maria Lusinda, a student of The English Department of Sanata Dharma University in 2009 entitled The Differences of Edmund’s Characterization that Influence the Plot in the Novel and in the Screenplay of C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. She tries to examine the characterization of one of the main characters named Edmund both in the novel and in the screenplay; she finds out that Edmund’s characteristics are exposed in more detail in the novel. She proves t hat some of Edmund’s characteristics have an important influence upon the plot both in the novel and in the film. Although the characteristics of Edmund in the screenplay are not described in as much detail as in the novel, his characterization shares a big role in the creation of the plot Lusinda, 2009: x. The reviews above show that some liteary criticism has been made of various aspects of C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. However, this study is meant to explore a new focus of how the author uses symbol to express Christian concepts, stories, and teaching in the first of the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia entitled The Magician’s Nephew. As we have seen before, the review by Oxtoprimasakti wants to relate the last book of The Narnia Chronicles The Last Battle with the biblical concept of The second coming of Christ. Then, Brennan also puts his topic on how Lewis succes in explaining biblical concept of creation toward children by the use of several techniques through the first book of the Narnia Chronicles The Magician’s Nephew. Furthermore, Aritonang tries to examine Lewis’ works aside from its religious base by focusing on the main characters in all seven books of The Chroncles of Narnia. In line with her, the review by Lusinda also deals with character, but in this case she only uses the second of the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia entitled The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Therefore, this study is a completely new approach to the analysis of The Chronicles of Narnia and it is hoped that it will give readers a new horizon from which to explore the books.

B. Review of Related Theories