Reviews

Never has a book made me more homesick. Such a beautiful ending to the series, and such a powerful look ahead into the Hope of heaven. C.S. Lewis’ allegory is so strong and poignant, and I have gleaned so much more from these books as an adult than I ever did as a child.

deep_in_the_reads's review against another edition

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1.0

CS Lewis’ climax to the Narnia series is the most mean-spirited, heartless children’s book I have ever read. The sense of camaraderie and redemption found in the classic “The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe” is here replaced by contempt for the ‘other,’ bigotry, and justification for cultist mentalities.

The plot is pretty standard fare for Narnia: a corrupting influence comes in and messes things up, human children are brought in and accomplish some minor tasks until Aslan pops up and fixes the major problem himself while the kids just reverently watch. That’s bad enough on its own, but the shocking amount of racism and religious fanaticism makes The Last Battle completely unconscionable.

The villains of the story are a group of Calormen, the only non-white characters in the whole series. They are taking orders from an ape pretending to be god, and are repeatedly referred to as ‘darkies.’ Granted, the people who call them racial slurs are villains too, but our heroes never address the racism they witness. The bigotry permeates the narrative too: Lewis goes out of his way to describe the people of colour as untrustworthy, beady-eyed, and smelly, and couches their villainy in their worship of a false god. At one point the protagonists disguise themselves as Calormen by covering themselves with mud to look black. When they wash it off, one character comments on how they feel like ‘true men’ again. It’s impossible for all but the most blind Lewis-boosters to miss the xenophobic contempt that poisons this book.

In case you’re thinking “hey, these books are old! Give Lewis a pass!” Here’s some context: The Last Battle was published in 1956, a time when Martin Luther King was participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and children’s books about interracial friendship were becoming popular (The Rabbit’s Wedding, about interracial marriage, was published only two years later; To Kill a Mockingbird came out in 1960). Even barring that, there are earlier books that are more progressive than The Last Battle. Moby Dick was released a full 110 years earlier, and went out of its way to advocate for interracial, inter-religious friendships. Sure, Lewis writes in “one of the good ones,” a dark-skinned character who ‘changes his ways,’ but he does this only by shedding his culture and religion, which are inextricably tied to villainy. In Lewis’ Christian allegory, characters are either Christian or evil, and those from other cultures are distrusted until they demonstrate themselves ‘true believers.’ There’s no excuse for it.

The Last Battle ends with a bang of xenophobia and fanaticism that was painful to read. I have to get into spoilers to expound on this.

Spoiler

So, at the climax of the story, the original siblings show up, all except Susan Pevensie. Her siblings sheepishly explain that they disowned her because she stopped believing in Narnia (i.e, Christianity). Therefore, she does not get to enter heaven.

The ending is even more twisted. It’s revealed that, in the real world, all the children, and the three adult Pevensies, were killed in a horrific train crash. Since they’re dead, they can’t go back anymore—they’re with Aslan forever. The Kool-Aid-drinking kiddos all rejoice and talk about how wonderful it is, all while Aslan annihilates the Narnian non-believers, only saving the faithful. Susan, presumably, is left alone on earth to bury her dead siblings. And yet, it’s framed as a joyous ending. Reading this, I felt like Lewis had lost his mind. He’s pushing an explicit cult mentality. Look at the message: death is the ultimate victory if you’re the ‘right’ religion, and you’re completely justified in cutting out anyone who disagrees, be they friends or family. A person’s worth is measured solely in whether they follow the same group-think. Though Lewis wrote a letter to a worried fan explaining that Susan might be saved by 'seeing the light' again, the problem still remains: her only worth depends on whether her ideology is assimilated. To our heroes in the book, the potentially-permanent loss of their sister means nothing—only Aslan matters. I have several friends who were similarly disowned by their hyper-religious families, and I can attest to the devastation this kind of cruelty can have on the disowned. That a children’s author could think like this turns my stomach.

It’s almost funny when you remember a line from The Magician’s Nephew. The evil sorceress shows how evil she is by recounting the time she destroyed a city and anyone who was against her. When a boy asks her why she’d done this to people who hadn’t done her any harm, she says, “Don't you understand? I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will?” It’s supposed to be a moment to illustrate her total inhumanity and hunger for power. But Lewis undermines his own moral by having Aslan act the exact same way, but because he’s the “good guy” in the narrative, it’s okay.

To clarify: I have no problem reading books that espouse different worldviews/religions than my own. John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is one of my favourite novels of all time. Even in children’s literature, it can be done much better. Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing is a perfect example of how to do religious allegory for children properly, in a way that welcomes other worldviews and leaves room for self-reflection. I welcome learning about other perspectives, but I can’t sit quiet when those ideologies dehumanize the ‘other.’ In James Baldwin’s words: “We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” Though I’m not particularly oppressed, I at least have enough empathy to understand the issue with books that target those who are.

The Last Battle is little more than hateful propaganda from a man who uses his religion not to unite, but to divide.

luisros0499's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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