"He is not a tame Lion."
Posted: Jul 12, 2014 4:53 pm
So said King Tirian in The Last Battle. Many other characters indicated the same thing at other points in the series. What do you think they mean when they say that Aslan is not "tame"? Has there ever been a time when you, as a reader, felt uncomfortable because of something Aslan said or did?
I remember reading the scene at the beginning of The Silver Chair where Jill asks Aslan if he eats girls, and his response was, "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms." If I recall correctly, I do believe my reaction to that line was somewhere in between "Wow, that escalated quickly" and "That was really dark."
As I've grown older, though, and read the books more and more times, I've come to view the exchange a bit differently. After she nearly killed heroic Eustace with her pride and recklessness, Jill then compounded the awful situation by refusing to own up to the fact that the accident was her own fault. It's not surprising to me that Jill would find herself in a situation where she feared for her life, just as Eustace must have feared for his when he tried to save Jill.
It's actually quite similar to Aravis and her attitude about her servant... while Jill was unwilling to accept that she was at fault (and even blamed Eustace!), Aravis was unrepentant for causing her servant to be beaten—she actually said she was glad for her to be whipped. Jill did not own up to what she had done until she had feared for her life, as Eustace had feared for his, and had gone to the Lion. Aravis did not repent for her wrongdoing until Aslan had clawed her on the back, just as her servant had been beaten, and Aravis had gone to the Lion. There are a lot of parallels.
In many ways, I think that Aslan is really only as "tame" as our choices, and our attitudes about them. What do you guys think?
I remember reading the scene at the beginning of The Silver Chair where Jill asks Aslan if he eats girls, and his response was, "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms." If I recall correctly, I do believe my reaction to that line was somewhere in between "Wow, that escalated quickly" and "That was really dark."
As I've grown older, though, and read the books more and more times, I've come to view the exchange a bit differently. After she nearly killed heroic Eustace with her pride and recklessness, Jill then compounded the awful situation by refusing to own up to the fact that the accident was her own fault. It's not surprising to me that Jill would find herself in a situation where she feared for her life, just as Eustace must have feared for his when he tried to save Jill.
It's actually quite similar to Aravis and her attitude about her servant... while Jill was unwilling to accept that she was at fault (and even blamed Eustace!), Aravis was unrepentant for causing her servant to be beaten—she actually said she was glad for her to be whipped. Jill did not own up to what she had done until she had feared for her life, as Eustace had feared for his, and had gone to the Lion. Aravis did not repent for her wrongdoing until Aslan had clawed her on the back, just as her servant had been beaten, and Aravis had gone to the Lion. There are a lot of parallels.
In many ways, I think that Aslan is really only as "tame" as our choices, and our attitudes about them. What do you guys think?