I think I know what Susan's problem is

P

Puzzle dear

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I think that her problem is that she was angry and hurt at not getting to go back to Narnia in Prince Caspian. I think she's trying to swallow her hurt by pretending Narnia didn't exist.
 
Both of those are good theories, especially since Lewis never really tells us. I'd say it was a mix of a lot of things. That's how the human mind tends to work. Not that I'm an expert.
 
I'm not sure that's it. I mean, she seems fairly accepting of it at the end of PC, even seems to have seen it coming.

My theory is that Susan is the type who's suspicious of revelation. She doesn't like flying by the seat of her pants the way the others do. In LWW and especially in PC the others want to act, Susan wants to be cautious and think about it, but the will of the majority prevails, so she tags along.

So when it comes to Narnia, it may be that she never quite *got it* the way the others did. I'm sure unless there's some magic involved in the power of her own doubts she couldn't possibly have really forgotten Narnia. Either she pretends to have forgotten it, or one of the powers of Narnia is that it fades for those in the 'real world' who don't just burn up with blind faith at the very thought of it like her siblings.

I think maybe poor Susan's problem is that she's too prone to rationalising for the necessary revalations that let one into Narnia.
 
But she does get back into narnia in Prince Caspian doesn't she? I'm only on page 40ish but she does in the beginning at least.

No offence but C.S. Lewis was sexist and made Susan get into 'lipstick' so she didn't believe in it anymore. :(
 
stronger_WM said:
No offence but C.S. Lewis was sexist and made Susan get into 'lipstick' so she didn't believe in it anymore. :(
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I think he just ment she got over obsessive about her looks. You must admit, girls tend to do that, and guys don't understand it. Why should Lewis? And you must admit, over obcessive about looks is usually a bad sign.

Anyway, back no the subject. I think part of her problem was that she was just SO pracitcal. Practical is good. I'm practical. But sometimes I get overly practical, or move from practicality to rationalization. For example someone might start rationalizing that one of God's amazing works was a coincedence. When the evidence was no longer right before her eyes, she rationalized until she decided it was all her imagination, a game. How could she be so blind? We ask. Well, think how blind man is sometimes. Susan's character wasn't that far off from some of us.
 
I still think she was trying to mask her pain by pretending Narnia didn't exist. I think she thought Well if I can't go there anymore, it may as well never existed!
 
Take three of shameless promotion for an author whose name I can't even remember. There's a really sweet fic about this on fanfiction.net - Belief is the story title, if you confine it to C.S. Lewis's work, you should be able to find it.
 
stronger_WM said:
But she does get back into narnia in Prince Caspian doesn't she? I'm only on page 40ish but she does in the beginning at least.

No offence but C.S. Lewis was sexist and made Susan get into 'lipstick' so she didn't believe in it anymore. :(
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c'mon. Lewis is trying to give a description for the things she valued over Narnia. He says she is into "nylons and lipstick and invitations." Consider it in context also. Jill is speaking in an exasperated and frustrated fashion about the folly of Susan who was always "too keen on growing up." Lipstick and nylons and invitations are abstract representations of "grown-ups."
 
I think it was because she chose to forget those things. She convinced herself that Narnia 'was' indeed a game, and nothing more, just pretend.

She denies it because she's more caught up in the real world. She's more interested in the 'material' world, the world we can see, as opposed to the promised land after death.

Susan, I think, is an example of people who lose their spirituality or don't place as much of an importance on it. She is more interested in her 'real world' life than the one that was so long ago and seemed like a dream. To her Narnia is a vague promise...a childhood game. I don't think she purposefully did it (chose to forget it) it just made the most sense. She's living in the here and now, and doesn't have time for (what she believes) is the might be, or was.

Geez that's confusing, and I wrote it. LOL
 
Exactly WolfsBane!!! First of all, Lewis is not sexist and there is a section on that which you can check out if you want to... I think that perhaps Susan's vanity got too much to her... I mean the kids always said that Susan was the prettiest. She got cought up in the things of this world and stands for the "rebellious one that turned away" or whatever... it doesn't matter the gender. There were plenty of lead female roles... just look at Lucy for example.
 
WolfsBane said:
I think it was because she chose to forget those things. She convinced herself that Narnia 'was' indeed a game, and nothing more, just pretend.

She denies it because she's more caught up in the real world. She's more interested in the 'material' world, the world we can see, as opposed to the promised land after death.

Susan, I think, is an example of people who lose their spirituality or don't place as much of an importance on it. She is more interested in her 'real world' life than the one that was so long ago and seemed like a dream. To her Narnia is a vague promise...a childhood game. I don't think she purposefully did it (chose to forget it) it just made the most sense. She's living in the here and now, and doesn't have time for (what she believes) is the might be, or was.

Geez that's confusing, and I wrote it. LOL
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Yeah, that's what I ment a page or 2 back, but I have funny way of making things sound much more complicated than they really are.
 
I was really interested to hear that she may be trying to mask the pain of not being able to go back to Narnia, but she may have lost 'faith' through over-practicality stemming from overly-accepting the fact that she will not return to Narnia. As I've read in these threads, if she cannot return, it may have just as well been a dream or fantasy. If she thinks she will never go back then 'logically' she can only go forward in our world, which would mean growing up, abandoning childhood etc. However, the other Pevensie children, not have the same logic or practical-mindedness as Susan, still remember and accept what happened to them in the past despite being told they will not go back. In the end, I guess that if you believe and trust to things beyond the material world, there are no bounds, whereas for Susan, she has immersed herself in the material world around her and has cut herself off from the New Narnia. I think that she would still be capable of making the leap between the material world and the New World but only when her 'logic' fails and reasoning, as she knows it, ceases to fulfil her life.
 
it might be both you know, Susan is trying to get engrossed in make up and stuff to push all memories of Narnia away, to get rid of the pain and hurt.
 
reading last night...

Ok, so I'm in the middle of Prince Caspian (which I don't like as much as HHB, but it's good...), and I finally see a glimpse of what you guys are talking about Susan "falling away" (I haven't read all CofN, so I don't know what's gonna happen). She was being whiny and didn't see Aslan for a while when they were lost in the woods. That's just like people who don't "see" God b/c they are full of too much pride, or just aren't aware of Him. She must continue to be like that, and that's why she isn't allowed into Narnia again b/c she doesn't repent. It's not that she's banned from Narnia forever, but she will be until she recognizes Him as her Savior. CRAZY! :eek:
 
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