In April NarniaFans brought you an exclusive chapter from the forthcoming book “The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy”. We are proud to be able to present another chapter that you’ll only be able to find on NarniaWeb. This chapter is on a fascinating topic, Why Uncle Andrew Couldn’t Hear the Animals Speak and is written by Kevin Kinghorn, a Philosophy Tutor at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.
One of the most fascinating scenes in the Chronicles of Narnia features an incident that is truly puzzling. The scene takes place in The Magician’s Nephew. Four lucky humans (Digory, Polly, Uncle Andrew, and Frank the Cabby) and one very unhappy Witch (Jadis) watch as Aslan sings the new world of Narnia into existence. When the newly-created Talking Animals begin to speak, the human witnesses are amazed to find that they can understand them. Everyone, that is, except Uncle Andrew. All he can hear is barkings, howlings, and the like (MN, Ch. 10, p. 75). But why? Why wasn’t Uncle Andrew able to understand like everyone else?
I believe (and I apologise that this is not an in depth answer) that Uncle Andrew was not able to hear the animals talk because he was not able to accept the truth. He didn’t want tot believe that a lion brought about these creatures into creation and he therefore could not hear them.