The Last Battle | Chapter 4: What Happened That Night

Chapter Summary:

King Tirian is taken into the woods and tied to a tree; he remains just in sight of the hill that contains the stable, but cannot hear what Shift is saying. The day turns into night, and Tirian becomes hungry and thirsty. At some point during the night, a group of about six Talking Animals bring Tirian some food and drink, which revive him greatly. The animals are convinced that everything is occurring on Aslan's orders, because they have seen him with their own eyes, and everyone else is agreeing with the statements Shift is making. The animals do not untie Tirian with fear of upsetting Aslan. 

After the Talking Animals depart, Tirian sees a bonfire grow on the hill with the stable. He sees Shift talking to the crowd of animals, and then he opens the stable door. From it emerges a stiff and wobbly figure that looks like a lion, and while Tirian has never seen Aslan or any other lion, he is sure that the figure is not Aslan. After a few moments, the figure goes back into the stable, and the bonfire quickly goes out.

Tirian thinks of his great-grandfather's great-grandfather King Rilian and his father King Caspian, who were saved by children from other worlds in times of trouble in Narnia. He thinks about the four children who saved Narnia from the 100-year winter and ruled at Cair Paravel thereafter. 

Tirian calls aloud to Aslan twice, but with no result. Then, Tirian calls out to the children of the other world for help. Immediately, he slips into a dream, where he sees seven people sitting around a table looking at him. The people are frightened and startled. One of the persons introduces himself as Peter, the High King of Narnia, and orders Tirian to speak. But Tirian finds that he cannot speak. As he slowly awakens, the seven people in his dream see him fade away, with no message delivered.

Reflection:

There's a lot to be said about this chapter, but some of the obvious topics are ones that I have already spoken on already. Those include the power of prayer and the importance of remembering the past so that it is not repeated. So in lieu of those excellent topics, I think it's important to look at exactly how Shift is getting away with this absurd deception that is occurring in this novel. How exactly is he so persuasive?

Well, there's actually a few things going on here. First, there's the most obvious issue of all--obedience to authority. With Shift as the leader spreading the lies around, there is no one to really challenge him. After all, he is speaking in the name of Aslan, and no one would dare do that unless Aslan was actually involved, right? I mean, if Aslan disapproved, wouldn't he intervene anyway? Thus the animals see a clever and charismatic authority figure, and they obey.

Then there's the social cue of conformity. It's easy to go along with what a group already seems to believe, while it's significantly harder to go against the grain and disagree with a crowd (especially in front of an authority figure). I would venture to guess that a majority of the Talking Animals are not really convinced that Shift is acting in honesty, but what choice do they have? To say otherwise would mean a worse situation, and they know it.

And onward we go to Groupthink. Similar to conformity, Groupthink is the idea that when a group of people who get together hold a belief, that believe is only strengthened by their being together. So, all it takes is a few outspoken Talking Animals to agree vehemently with what Shift is saying, and thus Groupthink is occurring. 

And the list goes on and on. Shift is clever, and he's pulling out all of the stops. He knows exactly what to say and what to do to cause the Talking Animals to obey him and justify his reasoning. The Talking Animals that King Tirian speaks to in the middle of the night are prime examples of the power of each of these motivational/manipulation techniques. In order for the spell to break, there just needs to be one or two voices of dissent. Who will they be--that is the question.