The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | Chapter 3: Edmund and the Wardrobe

Chapter Summary:

Lucy emerges from the wardrobe and tells Peter, Susan, and Edmund that she has returned, but her three siblings are confused. To Lucy, many hours have elapsed, but to her siblings, only seconds have passed since they left the room with the wardrobe. Lucy explains about Narnia, and they all go back to the wardrobe, only to find a normal wardrobe.

Lucy is teased by her siblings for days, especially by Edmund. A few days after Lucy's adventure, the siblings play hide-and-seek. Edmond sees Lucy hide in the wardrobe, and follows her. Instead of finding Lucy, Edmund finds himself in the very quiet woods in Narnia. Edmund realizes that Lucy had been telling the truth. Edmund calls out for Lucy, but can't find her.

A sleigh comes through the woods, with two reindeer in front, driven by a dwarf. In front is a tall, pale, beautiful woman who is wearing a crown. The lady commands that the sleigh stop, and she asks Edmund what he is. Edmund replies with confusion. The lady introduces herself as the Queen of Narnia. 

Reflection:

I think the appropriate reflection for today's reading involves the concept of imagination. I will begin with a quote by one of my favorite individuals (as you've figured out by now): "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" - Albus Dumbledore; HP7, King's Cross scene.

Lucy gets teased by her three siblings after her return from Narnia, for what they believe to be an overactive imagination. From their point of view, Lucy has either devised an elaborate lie, or her youthful imagination has gotten the best of her, and she actually believes that she can enter into a snowy forest through the back of a wardrobe. Kind of sounds absurd when you say it that way.

And so that set me thinking--we definitely encourage children to have active imaginations. (Most of us would much rather see young kids inventing a world like Narnia on the playground than sitting on the floor playing with iPhones, right? ... right?) But, what I also find interesting is that we encourage kids to have an imagination, but only to a point. There's a range of imagination that adults deem as "normal." If a child has too little imagination, it's hardly ever noticed. (After all, who is ever accused of having a profoundly underactive imagination?) Then, there's the range where children are admired for their imagination (adults, nod approvingly). These are the kids who invent worlds on the playground, pretend that their toy trucks are real, and dress up / act out scenes as their favorite movie characters (Buuuuuuzzlightyear to the rescue).

But then there's a point where we, as adults with underactive imaginations, start to question a child for his or her imagination. These are the kids with invisible friends, or the ones that spend more time talking to themselves than to other people. When I was growing up, I remember a family friend's child who acted like and talked like (and talked about) her favorite Disney princesses about 90% of the time she opened her mouth--and this lasted for years. Sure, some of these kids are Autistic or perhaps have social/identity issues of other kinds, but many of them grow up to be fully-functioning, non-disabled, typical (if there is such a thing) adults.

In this chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, this is basically what is happening to Lucy. Her siblings are giving her a hard time for advancing past the threshold of "normal" imagination, even though all four siblings appear to have active imaginations themselves. Hardly fair to Lucy, especially because she is telling the truth.