What I like about this book is the idea that Shasta was actually a prince, but he's somehow been raised as a slave/fisherman in another country. It reminds us that while we may labor on this earth in efforts which aren't particularly elegant, we are actually children of God, Princes and Princesses, and we have been separated, for a while, from our true country and family -- God's family.
And, there's a reason for it! If Shasta had never been lost as a baby, raised in Calormene, and forced to flee for Narnia, he would never have been able to bring his timely warning to save Archenland. But because he endured all those years of hardship, far from his real home, he was able to make a nation-saving difference!
I think, if he had known what would happen, that he would have to spend a lot of years in fear and hard work and sadness, but that because he did, he would be able to save his country, he would have chosen the exile and the life of a slave.
So when you think about your own hardships, you can se there may be a reason for them that, if you could know it, would be so noble, so good, so important, that you would choose the hardships, just for the privilege of fulfilling that destiny ...
What do you think?