The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe

My first impression:

Well, I saw the film so I thought the book would be as exciting as the film. But this wasn’t the case. The film is still quite new so I thought the story was new as well, but when I did some research I found out that the book was from 1950. I could’ve known this because it is a story of World War 2. Besides that the book is written in a religious way, which they did in the early days. In one of our first lessons we were told about the first books that were written and that these books were watered down versions of the bible. That was when I realized that this book is pretty old. It isn’t that I didn’t like the book, but the book is written in a bit of a childish way. I think this book can be great for kids in the age of 8 years old, but I will explain this later on. As I told you in one of my other blogs I love fantasy stories. So I really looked forward to read one of the books for this week.

In spite of the childish way the book is written in I really did love the story.

In class discussion/theory:

This week we started talking about designing assignments. We talked about the aim of assignments, which are: processing information, to show and deepen understanding and to show personal response. We discussed about which would be more a boy and a girl thing. After a short discussion with one of the “Mr know-it-alls” in class we agreed on the fact that processing information is more of a boys thing and showing personal response more of a girls thing. I looked this up on the Internet to be sure we were all right and it turns out that we were. Boys develop their left-brain part more, which means they are better in abstract thinking, creativity and spatial insight. Because they developed the left part better than the right part of the brain they have difficulties with the ability to use language and expressing their feelings and thoughts (Smid, 2010).  So the conclusion is; processing information is a boys thing and showing personal response a girls thing.

We also talked about the multiple intelligences, which are:

-       Linguistic: Word smart

-       Logical mathematical: logic smart

-       Naturalist: Nature smart

-       Spatial: Picture Smart

-       Bodily kinaesthetic- body smart

-       Musical – Music smart

-       Interpersonal- People smart

-       Intrapersonal- self smart

We all got one of the intelligences and had to think of an assignment that fitted this intelligence. I had ‘word smart’ and thought of an assignment where they had to rewrite the ending of “The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe” in case Edmund had told his family about his first meeting with the White Witch. Than we had to combine our assignment with the assignment of the person sitting next to you. Markus had Logic smart and with his assignment they had to think of 5 important events in the story and they had to write them down in order of importance. In combining the assignments they have to think of the 5 important events and write them down, consider what would’ve happened if Edmund had told his family and think of 5 new important events by writing a new end to the story. I thought it was quite difficult thinking of a good assignment and combining it to another assignment. But the message behind all this was clear. It is important to combine all the multiple intelligences in an assignment to adjust to all pupils in your class.

After this we talked about how a fantasy novel is structured. Before they wrote fantasy novels they painted stories. In the early days they made mnemonic devices to remember stories. They made epic heroic stories, which were romanticized based on myths and sagas. The fantasy stories are all structured in a certain way. They have a calling, a journey, obstacles, final ordeals and goals. The hero in these stories is always coming from unusual circumstances, he or she always leaves family or land behind, he or she always has to participate in an event, this always leads to an adventure or quest, he or she sometimes has to deal with a traumatic experience, the hero has a special weapon only he or she can wield, the hero always gets supernatural help and he or she must prove him or herself many times in the adventure.

A good fantasy novel doesn’t distance too far from the ordinary, uses language that’s appropriate, has a convincing world based on history or a myth and is emotional realistic.

With this information we had to fill in a form where we had to write down what the call, the journey, the obstacles, final ordeal and goal of our book was. We also had to fill in which strangeness and familiarity things we read in the book.  If these two things are in balance you’ve read a good fantasy novel. I think I can conclude I have read a good fantasy novel, because it was in balance on my form.

After filling in this form we talked about the similarities we saw between the three fantasy books we had to read. In all the books “the hero” isn’t prepared for the journey, they all have to have faith in themselves and they all have internal and external obstacles. 

Age suitability/theory:

As I said before I think this book is suitable for 8-year-old kids. I checked it again on commonsencemedia.com and they also say 8 is a good age for this book (Nichol, 2013). The book is written in a simple and understandable way. It is easy to read, it isn’t very scary, it doesn’t have very violent or bloody scenes in it and there is no swearing to be found in the book. So you could say that the book is child friendly. Besides that the children in the book are around 8- 14 years old themselves so children at that age could relate to these main characters. If we look at Erikson’s stages a child at the age of 8 years old has to be in the “industry vs. inferiority” stage. This means that children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority (Cherry, 2013).  The characters in the book also have to deal with this. And some of the characters are in the transition to the identity vs. role confusion.  For example Peter and Susan.

Fun to know:

The main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion. For example; Aslan sacrificing himself for Edmund in the same way that Christians believe Jesus sacrificed himself for sinners. Narnia is caught in an endless winter diverted from a Norse tradition mythologises a great winter which they call the Fimbulwinter. The trapping of Edmund by the White witch is diverted from the Snow queen of Hans Christian Anderson. The dwarves and giants are from Norse Mythology and the Fauns, Centaurs, Minotaurs and dryads are from Greek Mythology. Last but not least, the freeing of Aslan’s body from the stone table by field mice comes from a fable “The lion and the mouse”. So Narnia is a mix of history, religion and myths (Wikipedia, 2013).

Bibliografie

Cherry, K. (2013, October 19). About.com psychology. October 19, 2013, van About.com psychology: http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm

Nichol, M. (2013, October 19). Common sense Media. October 19, 2013, van Common sense Media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-the-chronicles-of-narnia-book-1

Smid, A. (2010, November 4). JM voor Ouders. October 19, 2013, van JM voor Ouders: http://www.jmouders.nl/Themas/Gezondheid-11/Gezondheid-11/Jongensbrein-Creatieve-en-abstracte-denkers.htm#

Wikipedia. (2013, September 25). Wikipedia. October 19, 2013, van Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe