The Voyage of the Dawn Trader

Dana Stubel

Dr. Ellis

EN 385

9 February 2015

The Glass Half Full vs. The Glass Half Empty

            Throughout C.S. Lewis’ novel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the reader finds how a person’s perspective can affect one’s travel experience. This phenomenon is mostly seen in the contrast of perspectives of Eustace and the Pevensies. While the Pevensies are eager to embark on their magical journey, Eustace is much more apprehensive, which leads to the characters having much different interpretations of the magical lands they visit.

            The different mindsets of Eustace and the Pevensies are evident even before they are whisked away on their voyage. Eustace is characterized as whiny, bossy, and judgmental, while Lucy and Edmund are open-minded and imaginative. These characteristics entirely change the way the travellers perceive the trip. When the three cousins are taken aboard Prince Caspian’s ship, Lucy “felt quite sure they were in for a lovely time” (17). Lucy and Edmund are thrilled to be back with their old friends and to take on any adventure that comes their way. Meanwhile, Eustace “would be pleased with nothing,” and continuously complains about the boat, his sickness, and the other travellers (30). The reader can get a first hand account of Eustace’s pessimistic perspective through his diary entries. Instead of embracing the fantastical journey that he is on, he complains about the lodging, the food, and the people because of his spoiled upbringing and fussy temperament. Meanwhile, Lucy and Edmund are experiencing the same conditions, yet paint an entirely different picture. Lucy and Edmund describe the Dawn Treader as a “beauty of her kind, her lines perfect, her colors pure, and every spar and pin lovingly made”, while Eustace “kept on boasting about liners and motorboats and aeroplanes and submarines” (30). This comparison shows that travellers may be experiencing the same thing, but have completely different interpretations based on their perspectives. If a traveller, such as Eustace, goes into a foreign place with preconceived negativity, he or she will not enjoy the experiences. However, if he or she eventually sheds the negativity, like when Eustace sheds his dragon skin, he or she may be able to take on a new optimistic mindset and change the way one looks at travel.

Imaginative Travel

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader portrays a specific quest the Pevensie children embark on. The novel hinges on imagination and travel. Lewis suggests that although some of us travel physically, there can also be the imaginative form of travel. This kind of imaginative travel is represented through literature as well. For instance, just as Lucy and Edmund travel to Narnia, readers join them in their voyage to a magical land through the act of reading. I was struck by the way in which Edmund, Lucy and Eustace are pulled into Narnia once again. By staring at a picture, they soon feel as though this picture is coming to life and sure enough, the picture pulls them onto Caspian’s boat. As a reader, we are pulled into their adventure in a similar way, by slowly getting sucking into their world we get to embark on the adventure too.

     Lewis highlights the role of travel and traveler throughout The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. One aspect of travel that stood out to me was that idea that we all have imaginaries countries. Lewis illustrates the fact that Edmund and Lucy are lucky enough to have a real place; everyone does have that imaginary country. To me, this means that every person has some part of himself or herself that travels elsewhere, kind of like a daydream. I think we all have different places we go to in our minds to escape the world we currently inhabit. This type of travel is entirely imaginative but that does not make it any less of a viable form of travel. Lewis suggests that although children have a real place to travel to, everyone has a type of Narnia in their own minds. I think the main point Lewis maintains is that imaginative travel is not limited to children but is something all of us do. He also suggests that imaginative travel is possible through literature. By reading about Lucy and Edmund’s travels, readers are transported into their journey.

Another aspect of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the idea of literature adding to reality. Although The Chronicles of Narnia is entirely fantastical, these stories are enhanced versions of our reality. As readers, our reality and even our perception of reality can be altered through the act of reading. Just as travelers must use new environments to build on their previous experiences, so must readers in order to understand the world they are placed in.

Lewis also makes claims about foreigners in new places. For instance, prior to Eustace’s transformation into a dragon, he fails to realize that he encounters a dragon, because according to the narrator, “Eustace had read only the wrong books” (Lewis 92). I think Lewis is suggesting that travelers can be unaware of the land they encounter simply because of practical faults. Eustace is too practical and too English to understand that the world he is in now remains entirely different than England. I think this mimics the way some travelers encounter new places, by failing to recognize the fact that this new place is entirely different than one’s home, one misses out on the reality of the new place.

Picking at Scabs

The religious imagery in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is impossible to miss and is widely critically debated along with the rest of the “Chronicles of Narnia” Series. There are many moments in this particular installment that have underlying religious or spiritual themes and almost all of these moments are defined by some sort of rebirth and the presence of Aslan.

            In the beginning of the story Eustace stands out among the characters as being ungrateful and not fitting in. His character is whiny and selfish but when he is turned into a dragon, Eustace becomes aware of his own pitfalls. He works harder to give back to the group and to help rebuild the ship. The narrator notes, “The pleasure (quite new to him) of being liked, and still more, of liking other people was what kept Eustace from despair. For it was very dreary being a dragon.” (Lewis 108). Eustace has found purpose by being able to give back to the group because he has reformed his personality. But now, instead of not fitting into the group in terms of personality, he is aesthetically ostracized from them. This gap is only bridged once Aslan appears and peels the dragon skin from his body. Eustace says of the experience, “And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.  You know – if you’ve ever picked the scab of a sore place.” (116). Lewis presents his readers with the imagery of a wound that is being exposed to the air. The process of removing the scab is painful but the end result is pure relief.

This can be interpreted religiously to represent Eustace shedding his negative personality traits. However, I also applied a ‘travel interpretation’ to the imagery.  The point has been raised a few times that travel helps reveal lenses through which we view the world. These lenses can be both positive and negative. It may be difficult to discover our own “negative” lenses because they often arise from our own biases or prejudices. This exposure is painful because we recognize that we have been incorrect or unjust but this revelation is necessary in order to heal the wound inflicted by it. Like Aslan peels Eustace’s skin off, travel removes dirty lenses from the eyes of the traveler. The discovery of our bias may be uncomfortable or even painful but it is worth it in the end when we receive a more positive lens through which we can view the world.

Knowles' "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"

Elesa Knowles

Travel Literature

Dr. Juniper Ellis

February 8, 2015

“A Beast Becomes Human through God: C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Eek’s Nihilism to Catholicism”

In the chapter, “How the Adventure Ended”, Eustace explains how his human self is rediscovered through his baptismal encounter with Narnia’s God: Aslan. Eustace states, “Then he [Aslan] caught hold of me- I didn’t like much for I was very tenure underneath now that I’d no skin on- and threw me into the water” (116). He forcibly ripped off his scales of his dragon self and left himself very vulnerable and weak. A dragon without its scales is unprotected and its armor scales are what divide it from humans and other furry beasts. Eustace’s scales were his dragon identity to himself and to shed them would mean to renounce his new-formed body without any hope of being restored to a boy’s body. Because the skin is tender and raw, Eustace’s skin must have hurt immensely as he was submerge into water allowing his broken skin to make contract with water. The irritation to the open wounds could have been lethal enough to make him drown. However, he does not drown but swim. After being submerged, Eustace states that, “ it [water] became perfectly delicious and soon as I started swimming and splashing I found all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again” (116). The stringing pain the water caused turned into nourishing “delicious water” and he was transformed from dragon to human. He recognized he had to submit himself to Aslan in order to be free and allow his true self that lied dominant to surface. This physical transformation altered his psychological perception of self as well. He recognized it was not his scales that made him a beast but his unwillingness to express his humanity. Now he can be a human identifying with his humility and acceptance of his limitation instead of a boy isolated from God, his cousins, and Narnia.

Like Eustace, many young children suffer from not being their true identity and wish to escape from the identity as monster that is imposed on them. Metaphorically, it is possible to drown on dry land. Candidly, it is especially when you are young. A young girl like Eek drowned herself in books and schools hoping to die. Unfortunately, teachers and classmates see her waving about accolades like the crew only seeing Eustace waving his stick and claws. Communication was lost between her friends and crew like Eustace’s communication was cut off when he became a dragon and couldn’t articulate his violent transformation. She was not waving but drowning as she ripped off layers of the scales piling up on her skin.

Through many interactions with the God and acceptance to the origin, the solution became obvious to Eek and Eustace. To stop drowning; swim! Move our limbs, interact with the walking bodies of water, fall into the cold unknown and adapt rapidly, and breath and savor the air that must be held and placed to live underwater and emerge. Eek thinks sometimes what happens to the folks who never learned to swim, struggle to swim, or lacked any opportunity to swim. Do they remain drowning on dry land eternally not comprehending it will pass? The pain is not permanent but sometimes reoccurring. The ultimate solution is not a sin but a loss of opportunity of being the love of someone else’s existence. It is possible to drown on dry land. Bless those like Eustace and I who struggle in its barren waters but re-emerge each time to soak off our scales.

                                     Works Cited

Lewis, C.S. "How the Adventure Ended." The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. New York: Harper Collins, 1952. 116. Print.

Discovering Lenses

Epeli Hau’ofa’s collection of short stories, Tales of the Tikongs, is a humorous and satirical look at native and cultural identity. It is the perfect book to discuss the nature of travel because a large part of it deals with the clashing of cultures or the dichotomy between “First World” and “Third World.” Oftentimes, Westerners travel to exotic or tropical locations that look beautiful in the postcards; but they really are not getting the full picture of the place they are visiting. Their resorts that keep all of the Western comforts simply an arm’s length away confine them. They are physically travelling but not mentally travelling because they are truly immersing themselves in the native culture.

            A particularly humorous and revealing chapter about the formation of native identity is “The Second Coming.” The chapter centers on Sailosi Atiu and his ascension to “Director of the Bureau.” Sailosi has no qualifications besides the fact that he has worked in every governmental department in Tiko. Once the inevitable occurs and Tiko has gained its independence Hau’ofa writes, “as was then fashionable in the heat of immediate post-independence nationalistic fervor, Sailosi moved quickly to purge himself of all pernicious imperial influences and embarked upon the restoration and preservation of his essential indigenous personality.” (Hau’ofa 50). The most important word in the above quote is “fashionable” because it connotes that Sailosi is just following the trend of other newly independent colonial countries and seeking to restore the “old ways” rather than creating an entirely new identity. The result of such a movement is the removal of aesthetic reminders of colonialism while still trying to cling to the comforts left in the colonial powers’ wake. For example, Hau’ofa notes that Sailosi changes his attire to “the national attire, varied with Tiki Togs, Afro-shirts, and other Third World clothes.” (50) However, Hau’ofa continues to demonstrate that Sailosi continues many of the “Western Traditions” such as subscriptions to Time and Playboy, his inherited station wagon, and dinner at the International Nightlight Hotel. (50). On the outside, it appears if Sailosi has re-embraced his native identity by wearing the traditional garments of his culture. But Hau’ofa reveals that his “transformation” is only clothing deep because he still clings to the western comforts to which he has become accustomed. In a way, Sailosi represents the traveler who clings to the comfort of his resort. Yes there are obvious benefits to staying in high-end resorts and of course it is very possible to enjoy your vacation on a private beach. However, the traveler also has the chance to undergo a form of mental travel by stepping outside of the resort and embracing the culture for what it is. There will obviously be differences and there will be some aspects of the culture that are off putting to the traveler. But the purpose of travel is to reveal to us that there are an infinite number of ways that humans can exist on this earth, and no one way is better than the other. Like Sailosi’s attire, it is up to the traveler to understand when they’re a being given a false image of a culture.

            As it is the traveler’s responsibility to learn the lenses through which a different culture views the world, it is also essential to understand their own lenses and to fix them if necessary. Martin Luther King discusses this in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He calls people to understand the injustice that is happening in front of their faces. Of injustice he writes, “injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience” (King). Here, King makes a bold statement about the nature of humanity. He knows that exposing injustices to the public will be very uncomfortable for many people. However, this discomfort is the same source from which King draws hope because it proves that injustice inherently distresses humanity. Like the traveler, the social activist must remove his or her own lens when combatting injustice. Only when people understand that their lenses are harmful will they be able to be removed which is why MLK calls the white moderate to action. He faced the difficult task of fixing an entire cultural lens, which propagated injustice. The traveler and the activist must both learn their own cultural lenses as well as those of the people surrounding them.