How did you feel after reading Last Battle?

When I was a little kid I was horrified about Susan and couldn't get past it well.

As I got older and came to know the Lord, the book was different. I was still holding out hope that Susan would change her mind and get over herself, happy for the rest of the Pevensies, Eustace, Jill, Digory, Polly...they got to leave the Shadowlands once and for all. Lucy would finally get to have Aslan tell her that wonderful story again from the Book of Spells (VDT), after all, he promised...and they wouldn't have to deal with evil again. They'd finally get to hear other people's stories rather than just their own. They could hang out with old friends again. The various characters from the different books would have gotten to meet each other and have one big party for the rest of time.

It seems most strange to me. There's a want to be sad because of an ending...but what is left behind is merely a shadow of what was to come for them all and for what we expect in reality. There's no need to be sad but excited and joyful. The one to be sad for is Susan...too bad no one will ever know the end of that character's story...and yet that is a good thing. It leaves hope in the midst of being human.

I love that book so much more as an adult. There's a lot more suspense in it than most of the others. C.S. Lewis did an incredible job on that one! Well, on all of them...but I'm biased.
 
I was sad when all of them died but I came to realize that ever since they went to Narnia that was the only place they would truly be happy in. I was sad about Susan also but in C.S. Lewis` s biography they wrote that he said Susan still has time to change her ways and perhaps get to Narnia one day. I guess you just have to decide for yourslef if Susan becomes a better person or not.
 
The first time I read TLB, the ending surprised me. But now I find it soo appropriate. Now I would say that it would have to be one of my favorite endings.
I was also shocked about Susan. I sat and thought about it for an hour(I was 10 at the time).
I think we would all have Susan return to Narnia. And I'm glad Lewis gave us the opportunity to let our own imagination decide her ending.
 
I have to admit it was the stragest feeling with the ending. It was a happily-ever-after ending with a twist. Sad and happy at the same time. I was as confused as Lucy was until she was told by Aslan.

Some questions I had after reading the ending:

The Susan question. How did she deal?
Jill and Eustace fought in Narnia. So were they taken before they died? The others never set foot in Narnia. Were they taken at death?
The Talking beasts of Narnia all came to the door, but were they all dead? alive? They escaped before the destruction of Narnia.

MrBob
 
I believe that Aslan sort of temporarily raised Eustace and Jill back to flesh-and-blood life in Narnia--almost like cloning them from their original bodies which would have died in the train crash with the others. The real mission of Eustace and Jill was not to thwart the Calormene conquest--since Aslan did not choose to stop it, preferring to render the Calormenes' victory meaningless by ending the world and sending most of the invading Calormenes to the bad place--but rather to help create one last opportunity for straying creatures, like the donkey Puzzle, to get right with God/Aslan.

As for the doorway scene, Mr. Lewis WAS a bit ambiguous about what was happening to the Narnian world in its ending. But I would say that any Narnian beings who were still alive at Narnia's last moment (the awakening of Father Time), were transformed to immortality on the spot, and joined the crowd of those who had lived before to arrive at the point of separation.
 
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It's one of the most obviously Christian books -- the ideas of an antichrist and false prophet from the book of Revelation are clear, but then Puzzle the Donkey (the antichrist figure!) is found in the New Narnia; it's a brilliant twist.

I cried and cried when I first read it, not because of the children's being no longer alive on earth, but because of the tragedy of the Narnians turning on each other -- the dwarves killing the horses and such.

But the book gains more meaning, the older you get, the closer to death yourself, to know that when the children arrived in the New Narnia "the term is ended, and the holidays have begun ..."
 
I agree. Yes it is very sad that Susan doesn't get to 'Heaven' at that time with the rest. But that doesn't mean that she never does. When I was little I always felt sad and a little mad about the Susan situation. I would think to myself "Why did she have to change? Why couldn't she just keep believing in the magic?" Now that I'm older I see Susan as representing us in a funny sort of way. We no longer believe in the tooth-fairy or in santa clause. We no long have that innocence that God wants us to have.
I have always thought the ending of TLB was the best ending of all endings. And to think that that description of 'Heaven' is coming from a man's mind! Imagine what the real heaven will be like!! How wonderful.
I just get chills.
"Go further up and further in!"
 
I am a bit late when it comes to reading Narnia. Yes, I have seen the cartoon back in 1980 but never read the books until more than one year ago. I thought it was sad Susan wasn't there. It was sad she had choosen the material world. But it was good to read all the other characters were there and even the characters from the past. The thing with the dwarves was sad as well. But as Aslan said, they couldn't change their minds. It was how they felt it would be.
I loved the part when they all met and parents and children where together.
And when they finally realized....this is the real Narnia and now their story began. I love how Lewis had written this.
 
I was sad and yet very up set at the ape for doing that to Narnia. I love it though because of Tirain and Jewel. They are the third best Narnians I like :D
 
Shift, the treasonous Ape, is closer to reality than most of us think. There are people in places of power, governmental or otherwise, who keep getting ever more cynical about using their position and privileges for NOTHING but their own self-gratification, merely wearing the thinnest mask of pretending to care about the people. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for example, pretends to be sympathetic to union labor--but she uses non-union labor on property she owns. Al Gore is always ready to scream at "Big Oil"--but his own family has a HUGE investment in Occidental Petroleum. Ted Kennedy says we need alternative energy--but has fought against letting wind-powered generators be installed near where he lives. Yet people keep voting for such hypocrites! If we act like Puzzle the Donkey, just passively accepting what Shift says without examining it, we have ourselves to thank for injustices that follow.
 
Interesting thought about Susan. In VotDT, Susan was the only one of the siblings not to have spent any time with a Narnian or friend of Narnia. Peter went to stay with Prof. Kirke while Lucy and Edmund went to Narnia.

Susan came to the US with her parents because they thought she would get the most out of it. She was already pulling away from Narnia back then.

MrBob
 
When I first read the last book, I was shocked, and almost cried at the end when I thought that narnia was actually coming to an end, but then felt better when I realized that Narnia wasn't logically gone. It was just going to be new and better! :)
Then, I was of course very surprised to find out that they all died in their world, and you didn't find out till the end of the book. But I really like the way C.S. Lewis continued and ended the narnia books. I want to read them again now. lol.
 
I was in complete and utter shock. I mean, how dare they die on me?!?! JK!! I was like,"What was he thinking?" But then I think I got over it!
 
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Jezebel707 said:
I was in complete and utter shock. I mean, how dare they die on me?!?! JK!! I was like,"What was he thinking?" But then I think I got over it!
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Welcome to the discussion, Jezebel. I didn't see you post before. I agree with you somewhat, it was shocking that the kids were dead -- but, it was also so exciting to see Aslan's country, and by the end of it, when Aslan explains that school is over and the holidays have begun, and then "wonderful things begant to happen" or whatever Jack says at th very end, I am always wishing I could be there, and see it, it sounds so lovely.
 
Dunno what I felt. Nothing..really. I dont get emotional really while reading books. The only time I really did get kind of emotional was while I was reading Eragon at this one part...

I honestly can say that..I..find the end of TLB..umm..dull..:eek: I dont know why...its just...not hard to understand and confusing. But I just didnt like it too much.
 
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