When English Professor Devin Brown started writing a literary analysis of C.S. Lewis’s timeless Chronicles of Narnia in 2003, he soon realized how the incredible depth of each book warranted invididual attention. Thus, the idea of having an “inside” for each book was birthed.
Brown says devoting an entire book to each of the Chronicles has worked well for him. To date, Inside The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and Inside Prince Caspian have been published prior to the big screen releases of these films. Currently, Brown is in the process of writing Inside The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which he says will come out in advance of the third film in 2010.
When CBN.com contacted Brown recently about his insight into Narnia, he was delighted to share the spiritiual lessons he observed in Prince Caspian, particularly how we all expericence the battle within.
HEDLUND: What is it about Prince Caspian that makes it unique to the series?
BROWN: Prince Caspian corresponds to an older time in the Pevensies’ lives and in ours as well, a time when the world is more complicated and less black and white, a time when it is not always easy to know what is the best thing to do. For a good part of the book, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are unsure of where they are. After they realize they are back in Narnia, they next have to figure out what they should do and what is the best way to do it.
I think many people will be able to identify with the Christian parallels here. I think that for many mature Christians, the question of what God wants them to do is often more of a struggle than the question of whether they will do it or not.
HEDLUND: What surprises you the most about Prince Caspian?
BROWN: Lewis had a difficult task in writing this sequel. He had to make it different from the first book but not too different, familiar but not too familiar. People who liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be pleased to find the same four heroes, but they will find them one step further along in their spiritual journey. In this sense, we as readers get to grow up along with them and share in their development.
There is a certain innocence that is lost here in the second book. And while, in our own lives, we all regret this loss, there comes a time when we all must leave our childhood world and enter the real world a bit more.
HEDLUND: Do you think there are some lessons in Prince Caspian that perhaps only children will understand and others that make more sense to adults? Why?
BROWN: Children will easily relate to the idea that we all, big and small, have a responsibility to stand up to evil where ever and however we can. Caspian’s wicked uncle has seized power unlawfully, he has mercilessly driven all the Old Narnians into hiding, and he must be stopped. Even the diminutive Reepicheep and his band of merry mice have a role to play.
I hope adults will understand that Lewis choose to have Bacchus and Silenus return with Aslan to emphasize that happiness and celebration are supposed to be part of our everyday life, not just something reserved for holidays and vacations. If we can’t be filled with joy in our ordinary daily life, then we are choosing to live in a world that is a little like Narnia under Miraz.