C.S. Lewis: His life experiences reflected in his literary work
When it comes to recreational reading I thoroughly enjoy science fiction. I was surprised to find one of my favorite literary works in this genre was written by author C.S. Lewis. He was known to be a reputable theologian and scholar, as well as a novelist. Lewis had a talent for inviting a wide variety of readers. Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898, Clive Staples Lewis was the second of two children. Not surprisingly Lewis grew up poring over the pages of books in his parent’s library. This is where he found meaning as real as any happening outside the doors of his home. At the age of four, Lewis’ dog Jacksie died after being hit by a car; soon after he insisted on being called Jack by his friends and family. As a young boy, Lewis’ interests in animal characters as depicted by Beatrix Potter led he and his older brother Warren to create stories of their own world inhabited and run by animals. At age ten, his mother’s passing left a great void where peace and safety had once been. Later on in life he stated “With my mother’s death all settled happiness . . . disappeared from my life. There was to be much fun, many pleasures, many stabs of joy; but no more of the old security. It was sea and islands now; the great continent had sunk like Atlantis.”(Lindsley). In order to escape this great loss Lewis buried himself in his writing and education. In his early years of college, he became intrigued with mythology, legends and had a passion for Greek literature. Lewis, at nineteen years of age knew of physical battle; he fought in the British Army during the first World War. He experienced trench warfare and was wounded during his enlistment. The loss of a friend, Francis Moore, with whom he had made a pact that if either should die in the war the other would care for his family led to Lewis looking after his mother, Jane Moore. Lewis and Moore became affectionate friends and he routinely introduced her as his mother, and said of her "She was generous and taught me to be generous, too."(Lewis). After his military service he resumed his studies and in 1925 began teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford. Lewis became the Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge in 1954. The event of his Christian conversion in his early thirties would have one of the most profound effects on his works. He found renewed joy in life and wrote extensively about this experience in his book Surprised by Joy: My Early Years . C.S. Lewis’ life experiences and formal education greatly influenced the characters and themes of all of his works. His science fiction Space Trilogy for example, encompasses three novels: Out of the Silent Planet, 1938, Perelandra, 1942, and That Hideous Strength, 1945. Lewis’ was a part of an informal Oxford literary group called the “Inklings”. Within this group his friendship with J.R.R.Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings led to the writing of this trilogy. In the story line Lewis’ main character, Dr. Elwin Ransom, was actually based in part on Tolkien, a philologist, which is one who studies literature and languages. In speaking of their friendship Tolkien is quoted, "Friendship with Lewis compensates for much, and besides giving constant pleasure and comfort has done me much good from the contact with a man at once honest, brave, intellectual--a scholar, a poet, and a philosopher--and a lover, at least after a long pilgrimage, of Our Lord” (Tolkien). Out of the Silent Planet begins with the principal character Elwin Ransom is kidnapped by two men who are in contact with aliens from the planet Mars...Malacandra as referred to by its inhabitants. Arriving on the planet, Ransom escapes his captors and befriends the inhabitants. He learns their language and the planet’s history as well as why they refer to Earth as “the silent planet”. In the second book Perelandra, Ransom is summoned to the planet Perelandra ...known as Venus to earthlings. Here Ransom finds the beginning of a new world in which an evil must be dealt with in order to save its inhabitants. Concluding the trilogy, That Hideous Strength , Ransom deals with unseen evil back on earth with the help of heavenly beings. Lewis puts the reader in Ransom’s shoes as he endures the the challenges of space travel not knowing what his fate may be. Whether he is traversing the landscape of the martian canals or on Venus swimming amidst the floating islands, lush with tropical vegetation, the reader is transported there. The intricate descriptions of landscapes show Lewis’ love and knowledge of nature as he builds the scenes. His words create such vivid picture that they touch your senses allowing you to experience all that Ransom encounters. If we look at Lewis’s collection of characters on Mars we can see possible connotations to greek myths as he depicts the races, one being the Sorns. Ransom calls them ‘Titans’ or ‘Angels’, having human-like characteristics but very alien features. Lewis’ love for Beatrix Potter, as a young boy, contributed to the anthropomorphic animals that fill the pages in the Chronicles of Narnia series. These books were also touched by mythology with such creatures as fauns, unicorns, and centaurs, even dryads personified and gave life to nature in his world of Narnia. While the movies that were made depicting these books were enjoyable they cannot nearly capture all that he imparts through the written pages. Lewis’ Christian conversion instilled an underlying value system throughout his fictional writing, the search for truth and the ongoing battle between good and evil. Long since his mother’s death, he had once again found security and hope in his life and it became a recurring theme in his writing. Lewis found another joy late in life; she was Joy Davidman Gresham, an award winning American poet. Joy and her two boys loved Lewis’ writings and she began a correspondence with him. In 1954 Joy left her womanizing husband and moved to England planning a new life. She had met Lewis two years prior on a trip to England looking for a publisher for her poetry. Joy’s visa was running out in 1954, which left her with the possibility of being deported. She and Jack, as friends and family called him, had become very close. Joy proposed marriage in order to extend his citizenship to her and her sons, to which Jack agreed. Soon after they were wed, Joy was diagnosed with cancer which miraculously went into remission giving them two full years together. The cancer recurred late in 1959, and in July of 1960 Joy died with Jack near her side. Lewis, again devastated with grief from his loss, pours his heart out on paper. The finished book, A Grief Observed, would be another from which his life experiences would be drawn upon to help others with their loss of a loved one. In closing I hope you can get a feel for a few of Lewis’ many works and how his life gave meaning to them. C.S. Lewis died one week before his 65th birthday on November 22, 1963. His death was overshadowed here in the United States by the assassination of John F. Kennedy on the very same day. Works Cited "C.S. Lewis Pictures - C.S. Lewis Photo Gallery." Celebrity Picture Gallery - Fan Pix, Fan Pics, FanPix.Net. Web. 25 July 2009. <http://www.fanpix.net/gallery/c-s-lewis-pictures.htm>. "C.S. Lewis." Http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/C._S._Lewis. Web. 25 July 2009.Lindsley, Art. "C.S.lewis: His Life and Works." Http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/cslewis/ index.htm. Web. 25 July 2009. "J.R.R. Tolkien's Quotes." Http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/tolkien/quotes.html. 7 July 2009.