The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Chapter 2: On Board the Dawn Treader

Chapter Summary:

This chapter begins with a brief meeting between Caspian, Edmund, and Lucy, in which Edmund and Lucy learn that it has been three years exactly since they were last in Narnia. Caspian's reign has been going very well, and he has left the dwarf Trumpkin in charge in his stead. Caspian has decided to sail east to try and find his father's seven friends (seven lords) who were sent away from Narnia during the reign of King Miraz. During this conversation, we are also introduced to Drinian, the captain of the Dawn Treader.

Caspian then says that their voyage is now about 30 days old--during which they have stopped at several (previously-known) islands. They are now about a day's journey from the Lone Islands--the outermost known islands from Narnia. Beyond that is just a mystery, and their plan is to go beyond. Caspian then takes Edmund and Lucy on a tour of the ship.

The narrator then takes us to a diary entry written by Eustace, who always carries a diary with him. The entry is dated August 7, and they have been on the ship about 24 hours. Eustace discusses the deplorable condition of the ship and living conditions, as well as his dislike of the company (especially Reepicheep).

Just before dinner the next day, Eustace goes to the front of the ship and sees Reepicheep, who does not know Eustace is coming. Eustace grabs Reepicheep by the tail and swings him around as a joke, but Reepicheep draws his sword and stabs Eustace in the hand. Reepicheep then challenges the very-shocked Eustace to a duel. Eustace flees to the company of the others, hotly pursued by an angry Reepicheep. The others give Eustace little sympathy.

Reflection:

There are two interesting points about this chapter--the first is the prophecy, and the second is Eustace's diary entry (some day soon I'm going to stop typing "dairy" and get it right the first time). 

I didn't mention the prophecy in my summary above, because it is rather a small item in the chapter, but I think it could end up being important. Actually, I know it'll end up being important, because, frankly, it's a prophecy. If we know anything from having read this series and other fantasy-based novels (Harry Potter should come to mind), then we know the importance of a prophecy. Here is what a wood woman/dryad spoke over Reepicheep when he was young:

"Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter East" (p. 298).

Now, in this short poem and prophecy, we know a few things. Most importantly, we are told what Reepicheep is looking for--he wants to sail East to potentially find Aslan's country. I think, most likely, that he will find something akin to that, per the prophecy. Implicitly, the reader is also given the guarantee of a successful journey. Not that anything catastrophic would happen to our protagonists, but this does alleviate some of the worry about the outcome of the journey. 

This also leaves a great deal of mystery surrounding the end of the Narnian world. What will we find there? Is Narnia flat--on a plain? (Could you "drop off" the side?) Is it bordered by another land? Or perhaps it is something like the world in The Truman Show (gosh, how creepy would that be?). Time will tell, I am fairly sure about that.

The second interesting part of this chapter is Eustace's diary (not dairy. not dairy). Eustace's dairy entry gives us many "firsts" in TCON. This is the first time that we have a date associated with any Narnian journey. The entry is dated August 7, and Eustace tells us immediately that it has been about 24 hours since they came to be on the ship. In other words, the adventure started on August 6. We have a timeline, really for the first time in any Narnian tale. In the previous four books, the narrator controlled the timeline, with statements like "a few nights later" or "some time passed." Time, in the previous stories, did not have the importance that it does in this story. We also know that the ship has been sailing already for 30 days--so we have quite a lot of time context as a result of Eustace's entry.

Eustace's entry also brings us into the mind of a character. This has certainly been done before, but it has always been through the narrator. We are used to statements like, "Lucy thought the idea was altogether unpleasant"--but we have certainly never been given an intimate glimpse into the thoughts of the characters like we get from Eustace's entry. This certainly changes things in some interesting ways. For the first time, the reader gets to know a character not from a distance, but from his own eyes. This inherently includes bias, which we have not experienced much of before. Going through Eustace's entry, it's easy to see how he has interpreted events very differently than the characters around him. Thus far, this means that we are getting the viewpoint of a rather antagonistic character--which certainly provides us with a different perspective than we are used to. It's not like reading an entry from the White Witch (boy, would that be interesting), but it is a markedly negative entry.

On the positive side, I think the last significant thing that Eustace's entry tells us is that is that Eustace is the "project" for this novel. We have watched as Edmund (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) and Aravis (The Horse and His Boy) went through positive transformations, and I would highly suspect that Eustace is the project for this story.

But that leaves a very, very interesting question. What do Uncle Andrew, the White Witch, Prince Rabadash, and King Miraz have in common? Well, honestly, not much--but they are all the primary antagonist in each of our previous four stories. If Eustace is our developmental character in this story, we are left with a major gap--we are lacking an antagonist. Part of me wonders whether the elements themselves will be the antagonist--if not, there is only one other option--betrayal, or treason. Time will tell.