Voyage Of The Dawn Treader Essay, Research Paper

The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ was written by C.S. Lewis, it was pulished by

HarperTrophy, in the U.S. in 1955 and reprinted in 1983. The book has 216 pages

and is a novel of fiction and adventure. . The story begins with Lucy and Edmund

staying at their aunt and uncle’s house. Their cousin Eustance, who they did not

get along with at all, was always ordering them around and never leaving them

alone. One afternoon when Edmund and Lucy finally did catch a moment alone they

began to talk of Narnia, their own secret world which they had visited twice

before. In Lucy’s room they looked at the picture on the wall above Lucy’s bed,

it was of a s a Narnian ship, the ‘Dawn Treader’ and they longed to be on it.

Just then Eusance walked into the room and began to tease them about Narnia, and

suddenly, they began to shrink. Lucy and Edmond knew what was happening but

Eustance didn’t . A few moments after, they were drowning in the water beside

the ‘Dawn Treader’. On board the ship, they found the prince of Narnia- Caspian.

He gave them warm clothes and introduced them to his crew. Then he explained to

them why they ( Prince Caspian and his crew) were there: "A longtime ago as

a child my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my father’s (who

might have taken my part)by sending them off to explore the unknown Eastern Seas

beyond the Lone Islands……on my coronation day , with Aslan’s approval, I

swore an oath that, if once I had established peace in Narnia, I would sail east

myself for a year and a day to find my father’s friends or to learn of their

deaths, and avenge them if I could." The remainder of the book tells of

they different obstacles that the group meet on their travels, on the Dawn

Treader, and each obstacle is an adventure. I enjoyed reading about their many

encounters for example- when they reach the Island of voices, which turns out to

be little invisible dwarfs who were punished by a magician because they annoyed

him, the only way they could be returned to themselves was to get a human girl

to go up to the magician’s tower and read the spell- so Lucy did it and saved

the day! Another adventure they had was on Dragon Island which was only called

that after the unfortunate situation where Eustance was turned into a dragon

because of his greed. When he came back to the camp where everyone was eating

dinner, they all got scared and ran away except for Edmund who saw a tear fall

from the dragon’s eye, and only then did he understand that a person was trapped

inside of the fierce body of the dragon. After many attempts to find out who it

was, they finally figured it out but could not do anything to change him back to

himself- only Aslan could do somthing as superior as that. My favorite part of

the book was their quest in search of the end of the world. They reach a point

in the sea where they are able to see the bottom of the seafloor. The water is

so clear, Lucy can see the shadow of the ship. Looking overboard, she suddenly

notices figures moving down below, and then she realizes that they are mermen

and mermaids. Then Drinian ,the ship’s captain, informs her that you can not

tell the men to look below, for they will be tempted to jump into the water

after the beautiful sea-women or the country itself. Drinian had heard about

many sailors who fell in love and lost their lives in the sea. I have enjoyed

reading this series because I like the author’s imagination and his way of

telling a story. His description and details help set a perfect picture in the

reader’s mind to a point where they can feel they are watching it happen in a

movie or a T.V. show. His adventures are always interesting, exciting and

unusual, his ideas are so stimulating that it makes the reader want to keep

reading till the end. I can never guess the outcome, it is always a surprise.

This is the 5th book that I have read by C.S. Lewis, and I hope to read many

more, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys using his imagination,

or likes a good old adventure. In this story, The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’,

there are 6 main charactors. I have introduced five charactors above- Aslan,

Edmond, Lucy, Eustance and Prince Caspian. I have not included Reepicheep but

will give a brief description of their charactors. Most of these charactors

appear in more than one of the novels in the series, other than Aslan, who plays

a part in each of the novels. Aslan – The King, Lord of the whole wood, and son

of Emperor across the sea. Aslan is The Great Lion. He comes and goes as he

pleases, he comes to overthrow the witch ans save Narnia. He has met with almost

all the charactors in the book, as he appears in all of them. Prince Caspian -

He is the nephew of King Miraz and is known as Caspian the tenth , the true king

of Narnia. He is also called the Emperor of the Lone Islands. His character is

kind , fair and brave.He appears in four of the novels. Edmond – King Edmund the

Just- in the second book of Narnia, he and his two sisters ,Lucy and Susan, and

older brother ,Peter, become Kings and Queens over Narnia. The four brothers and

sisters visited Narniaat the time of the winter rule of the White Witch. They

remained there for many Narnian years and established the Golden Age of Narnia.

They appear in 5 of the novels. Lucy – Queen Lucy the Valiant- She discovered

Narnia, she is the charactor who has the most contact with Aslan. Lucy likes to

do things for others, to help out. Also, she receives a gift from Aslan, the

gift of healing. Eustance Clarence Scrubb – He is Lucy and Edmond’s cousin. His

charactor at the begining of the story is that of an unlikable boy. However, as

the story develops he begins to change. He finds Narnia quite a shock and he

appears in three of the books Reepicheep – He is Chief Mouse, self-appointed and

humble servant to Prince Caspian, and perhaps the most valiant knight of all in

all Narnia. His chivalry is unsurpassed, as also are his courage and skill with

his sword. He apears in three of the books.