Sunday, January 5, 2020

The Great Divorce Essay - 893 Words

In The Great Divorce, the narrator suddenly, and inexplicably, finds himself in a grim and joyless city (the grey town, representative of hell). He eventually finds a bus for those who desire an excursion to some other place (and which eventually turns out to be the foothills of heaven). He enters the bus and converses with his fellow passengers as they travel. When the bus reaches its destination, the people on the bus — including the narrator — gradually realize that they are ghosts. Although the country is the most beautiful they have ever seen, every feature of the landscape (including streams of water and blades of grass) is unbearably solid compared to themselves: it causes them immense pain to walk on the grass, and even a†¦show more content†¦Conversely, the evil of hell works backwards also, so that if a soul remains in, or returns to, the grey town, even its happiness on earth will lose its meaning, and its experience on earth would have been hell. No ne of the ghosts realize that the grey town is, in fact, hell. Indeed it is not that much different from the life they led on earth: joyless, friendless, and uncomfortable. It just goes on forever, and gets worse and worse, with some characters whispering their fear of the night that is to eventually come. According to MacDonald, heaven and hell cannot coexist in a single soul, and while it is possible to leave hell and enter heaven, doing so implies turning away (repentance); or as depicted by Lewis, giving up paltry worldly pleasures and self-indulgences — which have become impossible for the dead anyway — and embracing ultimate and unceasing joy itself. In answer to the narrators question MacDonald confirms that what is going on is a dream. The use of the chess game imagery as well as the correspondence of dream elements to elements in the narrators waking life are reminiscent of Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The narrator discovers that the vast grey town and its ghostly inhabitants are minuscule to the point of being invisible compared with the immensity of heaven and reality. This is illustrated in the encounterShow MoreRelatedThe Great Divorce And The Screwtape Letters1891 Words   |  8 Pagesfocused on literature and classic philosophy. His most popular work is the children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia. This book series has been loved by many readers for decades and movies have also been made. (C.S. Lewis Biography.) One of the great things that Lewis was able to do with his novels are that he could hide a deeper meaning in different characters and even make the entire novel a lesson that teaches his readers something while they are reading. C.S. Lewis was very involved aboutRead MoreThe Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis567 Words   |  2 PagesIn The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis provides an allegorical description of a dreamers journey from hell to heaven. The Narrator of th e book takes a journey on a bus from the grey town, hell, to just outside of heaven. While he is making this trip from the grey town to heaven, he converses with some of his fellow travelers. These travelers are all different, yet all have the mindset of not being able to leave the darkness of the grey town and go to the joy that is heaven. Through his talent in story-tellingRead More The Manifestation of Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis1271 Words   |  6 Pagesof Pride in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis suggests that choices made on earth have a consequential effect towards our acceptance into heaven or our plummet into hell. In this book pride manifests itself in a hundred subtle ways as souls whine about perceived injustices or irrational motives. Thankfully, a few tourists do humble themselves, become transformed into marvelously real beings, and remain in heaven. But most dont, about which the great Scottish authorRead MoreHeave in Hell in C.S. Lewis ´ The Great Divorce Essay1010 Words   |  5 PagesIn his novel The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis depicts two settings: one of a grey town where whatever you want is provided for you and another of grand pasture. These settings, in the book, represent Heaven in Hell in a way, depending on which characters perspective the places are viewed from. However, the places that the main character visits and the journey that he takes is one that can be used to model the journey of our spiritual walk. Similar to how the protagonist starts in a bleak town thenRead MoreCritique Of The Great Divorce1898 Words   |  8 PagesCritique of The Great Divorce The Great Divorce is a wonderful work of literature written by C.S. Lewis about a mans trip on a bus to heaven and an understanding of eternity written form a first person perspective. It starts out with this man getting on a bus with several other people on it; to his surprise the bus begins to fly. After a while in flight the bus begins to descend, and the trees that were once figures far below him begin to get closer and closer until finally he lands on a completelyRead MoreEulogy Essay About Thankful814 Words   |  4 Pagessuffering. Cindy I am so thankful for you, I mourn for the loss your life will have for those closest to you but I m rejoicing for the relief and rest and more joy and the fullest life and most fulfilled self you will soon be fully part of. I m not a great writer but I ll leave you with one of my favorite portions from a book by someone who is, First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, cameRead MoreThe Postmodern Idea Of Relative Truth1771 Words   |  8 Pagesengage postmodern ideas through the themes and content of their stories. The postmodern idea of relative truth is the main concept that comes under fire, with its subsets (such as moral ambiguity and anti-absolutism) being engaged as well. In the Great Divorce, heaven is described in extremely concrete ways. Everything there is as hard as diamonds, while the people visiting from hell are ghostly and vapid. In these descriptions, Lewis makes a point of the absolute reality of heavenly things. MeanwhileRead MoreThe Great Divorce and The Divine Comedy3095 Words   |  13 Pagesimpacted is C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. Lewis’s book is greatly indebted to Dante’s work, as both try to teach the reader how to achieve salvation. Furthermore, Lewi s and Dante’s protagonists discover the path to salvation through choices, and learning what causes one’s refusal of God. Both authors explore the path to righteousness and enquire about life’s most difficult questions. Therefore, the dialogue between Dante’s Divine Comedy and C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce is witnessed through the conceptionRead MoreDivorce And Its Effect On Children901 Words   |  4 PagesDivorce Upon Children Over the past few decades, the divorce rate has exponentially increased throughout America. Many Americans have developed a new definition of family due to the rapidly changing culture of our times. These culture and value changes have drastically brought a change to the traditional ideas of the past resulting in many different changes within the nuclear family of the past. Divorce has become rampant amongst the American population, which is causing many SociologicalRead MoreDivorce Is The Best Or Worst For Kids?1093 Words   |  5 Pagesand difficulties in marriages that could end in divorce. Divorce is more of a normal thing, more than half of the marriages end up in divorce. (Weaver Schofield, 2014) This is quite a large number of divorces considering that there are millions of people that live in the United States. Divorce is not always the easiest solution when ending a marriage, along with divorce comes stress, psychological issues and sometimes even strengths. While divorce is often hard on the couple, if there are any children

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.