Favorite Parts of Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the book)

C.S. Lewis was a brilliant and gifted man who painted vivid and amazing pictures with his words. I recently reread Voyage of the Dawn Treader with anticipation of the upcoming movie which comes out this weekend. Each page of the book is full of words, sentences and conversations that are so vivid you can taste them. It has been a while since I read the whole Chronicles of Narnia series, but I think Voyage of the Dawn Treader might be might favorite (of course I'll say that until I read the next one). Below are so of my favorite parts of the book. (I do hope that the movie captured Lewis' heart in the biblical imagery scattered throughout the book).

Favorite parts of the book (we'll see if the movie holds up to the book)

1. Aslan's redemption/healing of Eustace the dragon

2. Caspian's call to his sailors to be on mission

3. Reepicheep's boldness to continue on mission, knowing it will cost his life. (His preoccupation with Aslan and Aslan's country makes no cost to great for the joy of being united with Him.)

4. Aslan's loving firmness with Lucy to resist vain glory

5. The beauty, purity, fullness, wonder, unending joy of Aslan's Country (heaven)

1. Eustace Clarence Scrubb - Story of Regeneration

     Our first introduction to Eustace is in the first sentence of the book, 'There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it'. Angry, self-centered, without friends because he was an annoying pebble in your shoe that you can't get rid of.
 Yet, about half way through the book we get to a climax of the scene with Eustace and Aslan. Eustace's greed has turned him into a dragon. There is nothing Eustace can do about his dragonness. He was horrifically miserable, dreary of his condition, he tries ripping the scales off his body, but all to no avail. He scratches and scratches until his scales are off, but as he tore the dragon scales off his body, they just grew back.

 Eustace could do nothing on his own merit. Aslan then spoke to Eustace, 'You will have to let me remove your scales'. Then the story goes on...

'The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. 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'...'He peeled the beastly stuff right off-just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt-and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then He caught hold of me...'


Beautiful description. It goes on in further description, but this was a masterful way to describe our own inability to change, to rid ourselves of our sinfulness and it is only through Christ Jesus that we can be cleansed, purified, and made a new creation.

What was/is your favorite part of the book?