The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Chapter 14: The Beginning of the End of the World

Chapter Summary:

The door in the hillside opens again and an old man emerges and walks toward the girl and the Narnians, who are standing by Aslan's table. The old man joins the girl. They sing together, and the sun rises. The sun is much closer than it is in Narnia. Hundreds of thousands of birds fly toward them from the rising sun, and one of them deposits a bright object into the old man's mouth. The birds then clear Aslan's table of all the uneaten food.

The song stops. Caspain asks the old man, whose name is Ramandu, how to awaken the sleeping Lords. Ramandu tells Caspian that he must sail to the world's end and return having left one of his company behind. Reepicheep immediately volunteers. Ramandu tells them that he is a retired star, and that the bright object the bird had delivered to him is a fire stone, which makes him younger and younger every day. Ramandu tells them that Coriakin is also a retired star, but a star who is being punished--and his punishment is to take care of the Duffers. 

While deciding to continue their voyage, the Narnians mention Lord Rhoop and tell the story of Lord Rhoop to Ramandu. Ramandu recommends that the Lord Rhoop sleep next to the other three lords until the Narnias return from the end of the world. Lord Rhoop agrees to this plan, and the girl and Ramandu place him into an enchanted sleep.

Meanwhile, everyone else from the ship comes on land. About half the crew feels ready to go home. In order to have a willing crew, Caspian tells them all that they are going to be selected to either continue the journey (and gain fame and honor, etc.) or whether they will wait here for the Narnians' return. Caspian accepts all but one man to continue on the journey. Caspian tells Ramandu's daughter that he wants to speak with her further after he has broken the enchantments of the sleeping lords.

Reflection:

What better subject for this chapter than the topic of reverse psychology? Caspian clearly gets it. When Ramandu tells Caspian that in order for the unenchantment process to work correctly, he must not only sail to the end of the world, but he must sail there with a willing crew. When the crew comes ashore, they are none-too-willing to continue the journey. They are tired, and they are worried about the direction of the winds that will bring them home. 

But Caspian has a trick up his sleeve. After it appears that he is trying to convince the Narnians to continue on this journey with him, Caspian corrects himself and tells the sailors that they are misunderstanding--they are not choosing whether to continue or not. Instead, Caspian and Drinian are selecting which of them will have the opportunity to continue (resulting in endless fame and honor). 

Caspian clearly understands the manipulation processes of scarcity and conformity. As soon as the sailors are told that the number of positions aboard the Dawn Treader are fewer than their own numbers, suddenly everyone wants to remain on the crew to sail to the end of the world. By the end of the half hour of supposed decision-making by Caspian and Drinian, all of the sailors are willing to continue on. The only one that Caspian and Drinian do not choose to continue is a man by the name of Pittencream--and he was the last man to decide that he would indeed like to continue on the journey. So, Pittencream remains on the current island alone while the others go on.

But despite the one lone sailor who gets left behind, Caspian's plan worked. Caspian is no foolish young king--he is one that has an advanced awareness of human behavior and decision making. Indeed, some of the psychological tricks he played have only been brought into awareness by research since the time that C.S. Lewis wrote this book. Obviously, C.S. Lewis also must have had an advanced knowledge of people and human behavior to write a character as keen as Caspian.