The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Chapter 9: The Island of the Voices

Chapter Summary:

The Dawn Treader continues to sail eastward from Deathwater Island. Just before deciding to abandon the journey, having spotted no land for many days, land is spotted again and the Dawn Treader makes harbor. On the island is a house. As everyone is approaching it, Lucy stops to fix her shoe.

As the others go on ahead of her, Lucy hears louder and louder thumping sounds. She is soon surrounded by a group of voices, who collectively decide to go to the beach and cut off the company of the Dawn Treader from their ship. The invisible creatures thump away toward the beach. 

Lucy catches up with the others, who are inspecting the house (and watching a water pump work by itself), and tells them what she has seen and heard. They decide to go back to the beach.

As they reach the beach, the voices tell them to stop--threatening them with death if they do not comply. The voices tell them that they need the little girl's help (Lucy's). The Chief Voice tells them a story about how a magician used to live on the island in the house they had been inspecting. One day, the magician put an uglifying spell on all of them. They became fed up with being ugly, so one day a few of them snuck into the magician's house, found his spell book, and cast a spell for making people invisible. Now, they want to be un-invisible, and a little girl must cast the reverse spell.

Therefore, they want Lucy to go into the house, upstairs, to find the book and read the spell to reverse their invisibility, and if Lucy don't do so, they--the Narnians--will all be killed. Lucy decides that she will help them.

Reflection:

The Island of the Voices brings us to a unique feature that we have not yet come across within the TCON series thus far, and that is the concept of an invisible enemy. Throughout the three hundred (plus) pages of this tale so far, all of our enemies have been pretty well known. Perhaps their location was not always known, but we always knew who they were. In this situation, all we know is that there is an invisible enemy, and that enemy is very likely large--due to the large thumping that Lucy and the others hear in the presence of the voices.

And this brings me to wondering what C.S. Lewis was intending with this chapter. Of course, there's the most obvious possibility--that the invisible enemy in Narnia is meant to parallel with the only invisible enemy that C.S. Lewis might write about in a Christian allegory--that is, the devil. This is the author of The Screwtape Letters, after all. But something about this parallel just doesn't sit right when Lucy decides to basically make a deal with the Voices--not that it's much of a deal (do what they say or be killed). So really, I don't know why C.S. Lewis has introduced these invisible characters, but I don't think they are meant to parallel the earth's invisible enemy. After all, these voices are none too cunning, intelligent, or brave. Meanwhile, it is yet to be seen whether Lucy's agreement to help them is foolish or brave.

I think this is also a good time to discuss the very odd behavior of the voices. This is not mentioned in my summary, but if you're reading along (which you most certainly are not by this point), you'll know that the voices always repeat after the Chief Voice--encouraging it/him/her when it makes a statement, even if that statement is self-deprecating. Take a look:

"'Why, bless me, if I haven't gone and left out the whole point,' said the Chief Voice. 

'That you have, that you have,' roared the Other Voices with great enthusiasm. 'No one couldn't have left it out cleaner and better. Keep it up, Chief, keep it up'" (p. 336-337). 

Interesting, huh? It's almost as if the voices are the exaggerated version of perpetual and unstoppable groupthink--the idea that the more individuals that are present that are in agreement, the more polarized the group as a whole becomes (read: Tea Party). At least, that's what I like to think C.S. Lewis is saying (but don't start agreeing with me). 

We see the Narnians as a polar opposite to the voices--the Narnians decide via conversation the best manner in which to proceed, even though Lucy ultimately has the final word. But I would imagine that the voices are run much more as a dictatorship, in which the Chief Voice is always correct, no matter how silly or absurd that correctness might be (such as when the Chief Voice is admitting to being incorrect). The whole thing is fascinating, and I think we will get to see a little more of the voices (literally and figuratively) before we sail onward. Man, I'm punny today.

Again, late post. Work is very busy...