The Magician's Nephew | Chapter 10: The First Joke and Other Matters

Chapter Summary:

This chapter begins with other creatures (of the mythological sort) emerging to the Lion's song. We learn the Lion's name: Aslan. Aslan proclaims the animals in front of him 'Talking Beasts,' and tells them to never go back to the ways of the Dumb Beasts. A bird speaks too loudly; the Talking Beasts laugh at him, and the first Narnian joke has been made. Aslan encourages the joy/laughter.

Digory, Polly, and the Cabby go forward toward the Talking Beasts, while Aslan goes the other direction to speak to a council of Talking Beasts about the evil that has already entered Narnia.

The Talking Beasts try to make sense of Digory, Polly, and Cabby. The Cabby's horse, named Strawberry, can now talk as well; Strawberry and the Cabby have a lengthy interaction about pros/cons of their life that they have lived together. Strawberry agrees to let Digory ride on his back to go toward Aslan.

The Talking Beasts spot Uncle Andrew hiding at the edge of the woods and chase after him. Uncle Andrew has so deluded himself that he cannot understand the Talking Beasts, and he runs from them in terror. (The Talking Beasts simply want to figure out who/what he is.)

Reflection:

I think the most interesting part of this chapter, with rather upsetting undertones, is the interaction between the Cabby and his horse, Strawberry. The Cabby, excited to speak with his beloved horse, seems ready for Strawberry to verbally recollect how well he has been taken care of by the Cabby. Strawberry does indeed remember the treats (oats and sugar cubes), but a majority of the horse's memory is not too fond. In particular, Strawberry remembers how the Cabby "used to tie a horrid black thing behind me and then hit me to make me run, and however far I ran this black thing would always be coming rattle-rattle behind me" (p. 50). Strawberry is referring to a carriage, of course. Strawberry remembers London only as "a hard, cruel country... There was no grass. All hard stones" (p. 50)

For those of you who know Laura and I, we are owners of a very vocal black cat, named Andy. Here is an offensively cute picture of him:

For those of you who know Laura and I, we are owners of a very vocal black cat, named Andy. Here is an offensively cute picture of him:

Andy misbehaves on occasion (several times daily), and we sometimes respond with something like, "After all the things we do for you... We give you food, shelter, comfort, play, treats, and we even scoop your POOP--several times a week--and this is how you repay us?!"

But then reading the interaction between the Cabby and Strawberry makes me wonder what our cat is really thinking. Who knows how many obscenities he has shouted at us via meows. I suppose it's important to remember that while we may see Andy's life as perfect and privileged, he might not always see it that way--and that's not really anyone's fault necessarily. Of course Andy would love a 6-bedroom house to explore, but we don't have a 6-bedroom house, and I suspect that sometimes he probably feels that his territory is rather small in a 2-bedroom (3.5 total rooms) apartment. This chapter of The Magician's Nephew reminds me to not necessarily assume what Andy is thinking, and despite the fact that we think his life must be perfect, he might not necessarily agree 100%.

For animals, like humans, their situations are relative I think. Laura and I know that Andy is better off than 99.9% of stray cats in the world, but he doesn't know that. Listen to your animals, and don't make assumptions--that is what I took from this chapter.