Religious Symbolism in the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

In one of his letters dated September 28, 1955, C.S. Lewis told a friend that one of his chief aim in his writings was to catch his reader off-guard. In the same letters Lewis told his friend what two means he would accomplish this feat. Lewis said that he would use “fiction and symbol.” (Glover, 1981) How do we define fiction? Fiction is defined as literature, which describes events, and characters, which are imaginary. In the case of C.S. Lewis we must distinguish between the purely imaginary character and the fictional character that stands in for someone or something else. Jesus in the Gospel used parables to teach his truths. Many of his parables were taken from real life examples. All of his parables were meant to communicate a deeper meaning. Those who had the faith could see the deeper truths contained in them, while those who didn’t have the experience of faith were not able to understand the deeper meaning.