The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | Chapter 5: Back on This Side of the Door

Chapter Summary:

The chapter begins with Edmund's decision to deny--in front of all of his siblings--Lucy's claim that he too had been to and seen Narnia; Lucy storms off, very upset. Peter then scolds Edmund for being so mean to Lucy.

The next morning, Peter and Susan go tell the Professor (Digory) what has occurred. They are surprised when the Professor believes them. The Professor explains that one of three situations must be true--either Lucy is lying (which she historically doesn't do), she's crazy (which she isn't), or she's telling the truth. When Susan explains that Lucy was only gone for a few moments, the Professor says that this further reinforces Lucy's story. The Professor says that the other world probably has a separate time of its own, a concept that Lucy would not likely invent herself. The Professor ends the conversation abruptly, suggesting that they all just mind their own business.

One day not much later, the housekeeper, Mrs. Macready, was giving a historical tour of the house. The children had been told to stay out of the way of these tours, so all four of them fled into the wardrobe room and then into the wardrobe (by fate or chance) to escape the tour.

Reflection:

'Logic!' said the Professor half to himself. 'Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth' (p. 90).

I believe that what the Professor is doing is called deductive reasoning. It is simple, and it goes like this: If there are three options: A, B, and C, and options A and B are eliminated, then it is clear that option C is correct. Funny enough, this is actually one of the skills that is focused on in schools today, primarily because it helps children narrow down answers in their standardized, multiple-choice tests. The Professor further assists with the reasoning by showing just how unlikely options A and B are--Lucy does not have a history of lying, and anyone who interacts with her could tell you that she is not crazy. Another way to look at the reasoning is this: Either Narnia does not exist, Lucy thinks Narnia exists (but it doesn't), or Narnia does exist. 

Thus we come to the conclusion this way through deductive reasoning:
- Conflict: Lucy thinks Narnia is real
- Evidence 1: Lucy tells the truth (Lucy is truthful 100% of the time)
- Evidence 2: Lucy is not mad (there is 0% chance that Lucy is crazy)
- Conclusion: Therefore, Narnia is real

Now while this argument probably wouldn't hold up in court, Susan and Peter have learned an important lesson that will likely assist them when they (spoiler alert) enter Narnia in the next chapter. Indeed, logic and reasoning are important for everyone to learn and understand--and our failure to understand these simple concepts have been detrimental at times in history (if it acts like a dictator and looks like a dictator and says that all Jewish people should be murdered, it's probably an evil dictator). What should be interesting is to watch Peter and Susan throughout their time in Narnia to see if the Professor's lesson has set in. 

This lesson in reasoning is certainly enough to help the reader see the allegory throughout the text; after all, allegory is nothing more than metaphors crossed with deductive reasoning. (If it speaks like Jesus, is present at the creation of the world like Jesus, lives like Jesus, dies like Jesus, and is resurrected like Jesus, even if it looks like a lion... it's probably still Jesus.)