The best way for me to assimilate symbolism
with text and literature is to go back to high school.
Right before the movie came out for Narina:
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, our entire
school read the accompanying book. I went to a
small private Christian school, which taught K5
to high school graduates. They kept about one
hundred students at a time. So K5 to high school
were either read to or required to read the book.
We were required to be exposed to a chapter or two
a week until finally all the classes were done and
it was game day. Yes. We had Narnia day. The
entire day was filled with games and activities all
focused around the book and the upcoming movie.
Then shortly after Narnia day we, as a whole school
together, went and saw Narnia in theatres.
This all seems fine except for one part. Narnia
is a story about an evil witch. We had an entire year
celebrating a witch book and movie, from the same school
that banned any Harry Potter paraphernalia at all. Harry
Potter were books and movies with story lines including
witches. Why was Narnia any different?
Our headmaster when on to explain a little lesson
called symbolism. We explained that Narnia was the classic
story of “good vs. evil”, with good prevailing. And that it
was not a story about “teaching witchcraft”, but defeating it
This, to me, is a form of symbolism. If you were
simply reading the text you would not read about God verses
the devil, but yet a young band of siblings and mythical creatures
fighting an evil ice witch. When you read about Aslan giving his
life so that Peter can live, you are not reading about Jesus
giving his life for mankind, these are symbols.
We come about to symbols by becoming abstract from
the text itself. For instance in the poem we read in class about
the onion, one of my partners said to me, “This poem has to
have more to it. Why would it get so serious? It has to be about
more than a simple onion.” That was a very good statement. It
was true. You arrive at symbols when you go past the natural,
and step in to the figurative, or the unconcrete.
3 comments:
Good post. Narnia is awesome! :)
I really love your onion picture!! I was not allowed to watch Harry Potter growing up, but when I watched Narnia I was a little confused at first because of the witch (I had never read the books). However over the course of the movie I begun to see the symbolism illustrated between Jesus and the lion. Great post!
I love that you had Narnia day haha! I went to a small private school through 8th grade so I understand what you mean. Narnia really is an excellant example of symbolism and shows just how significant it is to understand symbolism when reading a piece. Great insight.
Post a Comment