The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I read this book long ago as a young child, but I was very surprised to find the book only two hours long to read. Lewis packs a lot of story into a small volume. If he wrote Perelandra this way, Perelandra would have been a very different book.

The symbolism was obvious and good. Something I still wonder about is the prophecy that the White Witch's life would end when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve sit at Cair Paravel. Her life was "ended" before that, when Aslan leaped on her during the battle. So that doesn't seem entirely consistent to me. Also, later in the series of books I vaguely recall that the witch comes back. What's the deal with that? "Whoever heard of a witch dying completely?" I believe is a quote from the later book. That's not that big of a deal though.

So the witch was white, a color which in our culture symbolizes purity. Yet, as a student in class pointed out, the color white in nature is very rare. Snow, and clouds, are the only natural occurrences of it that I can think of.

Last of all, the way Aslan told Edmund's siblings to not talk about the past. I think that was good. After repentance, it is best to look forward. Edmund used what he learned from the experience to benefit others all the same.