This blog is in conjunction with the C.S. Lewis DeCal. We will deconstruct the works of one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the 20thcentury. The course objective is to discuss the following three questions:
1. What structures, images, themes, and plots does C.S. Lewis use? What purpose and effects are created?
2. How are the life and thoughts of C.S. Lewis reflected in these works? (to better answer this question, we will explore Lewis’ diary and literary criticism in addition to Surprised by Joy)
3. How do the books connect to each other; what overarching themes and messages do you draw from the works?
Students should come out of this course with well-formulated answers to the above questions, and an overall deeper appreciation and understanding of CS Lewis and his works.
Responses must be at least: 200 words.
Tips for responses:
1. Ask the above three questions during your reading.
2. Comment/discuss issues discussed by other classmates.
3. Pick and image or passage that stands out to you, and discuss. Keep in mind: passages from outside sources (books, diaries, journals, etc.) do not count as part of the word limit.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
The Great Divorce Chapters 1-5
What sort of society does one get in Lewis’ depiction of hell? Feel free to incorporate discussion of the characters that appear, and what vices they represent.
I found the relationship between the Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters to be very interesting. It was said in class that Lewis did not enjoy writing the Screwtape Letters, but I wonder if he also did not enjoy writing the Great Divorce. The latter focuses on what choices people make that can keep them from entering heaven. From the first lines of the novel we learn that the narrator finds himself in this place inexplicably. Lewis writes, “I seemed to be standing in a busy queue by myself on the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight.” This is exactly how I would imagine purgatory (one finds himself there and has no idea how he or she got there-it is almost like a dream, but this is a dream that one can wake up from). This state of limbo is where the narrator finds himself. Lewis suggests that when we die we enter a state of limbo until we have repented for our sins. However this state of limbo is not something that humans should strive for because as the story unfolds we see that Heaven is a much more peaceful place, and the ghosts in purgatory cannot enter Heaven.
I found The Great Divorce to be quite confusing in the first couple of chapters. It is interesting how the first chapter begins with a character walking around in what appears to be an empty, rundown, gloomy city. It appears that the people at the bus stop are not aware of where they are nor how they got there. All of the people seem to be easily annoyed and angered. They're all bickering and arguing with one another. This town that they are all in is one that is simply grey, one where they can just "think" something they desire into existence. We also learn that there are in fact many people living in this place, except "they''ve been moving on and on. Getting further apart. They're so far off by now that they could never think of coming to the bus stop at all. Astronomical distances." It is interesting that Lewis appears to exaggerate this by continuing to emphasize how far apart they are. It's as if Lewis is telling that reader that Hell will actually be full of many many people. We also learn that there are a variety of people (i.e. Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Henry the Fifth) there.
The Hell that C.S. Lewis depicts is at first a very lonely and subtly strange place, one that not even the inhabitants allow themselves to recognize for what it is. From the very start during the struggle for a place in line at the bus stop, the people are very isolated and it is every man for himself, not to mention the fact of the wide dispersal of houses and utter lack of community. The conversations that the narrator has on the bus show that many of the occupants are also incredibly self-absorbed, knowing only of their own struggles and focused only on what this trip can bring them. There aren’t even any of the typical exchanges of information that one would expect when conversing with a fellow passenger, the narrator does not give any information only receives it. Upon reaching their destination, one passenger explains that he did not bring along his ‘friend’ because he lived too far from the bus stop, making it inconvenient, and also that the friend was getting eccentric. These incredible viewpoints that are all so self-centered contrast sharply with what one Spirit tries to explain to a Ghost. “I do not look at myself. I have given myself up”, he explains that it is not only realizing how much you fail, it is about turning the focus entirely away from yourself so that no part of the focus remains on you. The utter lack of understanding that many of them possess is distressing yet not surprising considering the place they come from.
Like Sarah (first post), I was particularly intrigued by the novel's beginning lines: "“I seemed to be standing in a busy queue by myself on the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight. Time seemed to have paused on that dismal moment” (467). C.S. Lewis sets the story in a very thought-provoking and meaning-filled "time". In the gray town, the time seems stuck ("paused") at the junction between day and night. This setting provides a parallel to the situation of the people stuck in the city. The inhabitants of Hell/Purgatory remain stuck and inbetween-- they cannot feel motivation to leave on the bus or reason to stay in any location when they get into quarrels. Rather everything is an ongoing moment of moving without meaning. Similarly, the time is fixed at twilight, never fully being day or moving onto night. The narrator describes wandering in this unending "evening twilight," with darkness closing in but not reaching the nighttime dark. Even roaming "for hours" leads him nowhere different.
This beginning notion of time in the gray city is soon challenged by a "cultured" man on the bus. This ghost believes that "all the nightmare fantasies of [their] ancestors are being swept away. What [they] now see in the subdued and delicate half-light is the promise of the dawn: the slow turning of a whole nation towards the light. Slow and imperceptible, of course" (475). He later is confronted by a bright Spirit (his earthly friend Dick) for his intellectual pride and sin. He is so thickly set in his wrong beliefs, however, that he imagines the grey town could be heaven. He says the "grey town with its continual hope of morning (we must all live by hope, must we not?), with its field for definite progress, is, in a sense, Heaven, if only we have the eyes to see it? That is a beautiful idea" (484). The ghost twists the paused twilight and misinterprets it as dawn. He is oblivious that he has been in hell with absolutely o progress or hope. The turn to light that he describes is "slow and imperceptible" because it isn't happening at all! His case is a clear example of the stuck nature of time and the ghosts in hell.
In the first second section of The Great Divorce perception and reality were themes that stood out to me the most. While waiting for the bus C. S. Lewis finds himself in the company of on individuals on the side of a “long, mean street.” Upon the arrival of the bus C. S. Lewis describes the Driver as being “full of light” and mentions how the Driver uses one hand to drive and the other fan himself. On somewhat contrast the C. S. Lewis’ description, individuals amongst the queue have a different take on the driver and who and what he represents. They perceive the Drier as thinking of himself as too good to look at them. One person comments, “My dear, why can’t he act naturally” (4). In remark to this comment C. S. Lewis speculates that the queue’s perception of the Driver might be due to the position of authority that he holds as well as the attitude that he took in completing his job. As the story progresses a young boy sits next to Lewis on the bus and give his own analysis of the people in which he states “They’ve got cinemas and fish and chip shops and advertisements and all the sort of things they want. The appalling lack of any intellectual life doesn’t worry them” (5). Though they all shared the same social space there exist a division between the individuals in the queue and C. S. Lewis and the young man that sat next to him on the bus. Based upon the context it is safe to say that this division is somewhat political and talks of financial spending also suggest a division in class. It is interesting to me how social factor play a key role in the ways in which people perceive reality. If reality is the real experience of individuals then perception must be based upon on that experience. If individuals are divided in social space then there are different realities that they experience. So perceptions cannot correct or incorrect. The role of intellect is in my opinion, the process of creating a “correct” perception of the world. It does this by excluding individual, ideas, and experiences that do not agree with that of others within academia. It is interesting for me to see how C. S. Lewis’ perception of his reality and others develops throughout the book.
The sort of society that lives in Lewis’ hell is empty of people. The people who initially entered the society and tried to live next to others in a neighborhood, sooner or later, found themselves quarreling with their neighbors. They changed neighborhoods in search for a more peaceful place to live, and even moved to almost empty neighborhoods, but they quarreled again, because the lack of peacefulness was a result of their agitating behavior. Examples of that are the Big Man that seems not to lose an opportunity to attack others when he sees fit, and Napoleon that despite living in a beautiful estate he unrestingly moves up and down thinking of who to blame for his defeat. It is also a society that lives in fear. Some of them do not admit it, saying that fears come from primitive superstitions, but all of them show the urge to cover the fear up, and pretend that it does not exist. Some of them, like the Intelligent Man, try to avoid talking about it, but his evident fear is the one that initially brings the conversation up. The society shows also the signs of materialism. No mater how much they have, they still want more. They can create everything with their imagination, but they are still looking for real things, so much that Intelligent Man believes he can make a profit by importing in the city real things.
I found Lewis’s depiction of the rainy city very interesting. Chapter one opens with style of writing I found unusual for Lewis. The initial description of the rainy city is marked by a sort of indistinct and inescapable squalor; “ however far I went I found only dingy lodging houses, small tobacconists, hoardings from which posters hung in rags, windowless warehouses, goods stations without trains, and bookshops of the sort that sell the works of Aristotle”. Everything here seems abandoned and unfulfilled. The arbitrary violence which comes out in Lewis description of the queue is also interesting. A whole range of vices are here on display, violence, greed, pretentious, jealousy, and deception. But it is interesting who utterly pointless the narrator makes them seem the driving force for most of these negative behaviours is ‘to get a place on the bus’, yet the reader implies that there was always plenty of space, it only seemed to be otherwise. This queue episode seems to a satirical commentary on the sheer uselessness of earthly behaviour in this supernatural environment. I don’t know if this a very good parallel to make but the description of hell very much reminded me of a film called, ‘Wristcutters’, the premise of which is people who commit suicide on earth are forced to live in a almost identical but ever so slightly worse version of the world. Something that I thought was interesting but that I couldn’t quite account for is why does Lewis have the narrator delay the revelation that the rainy city is hell (it doesn’t actually come out until chapter five) and why are the allusions to death, and the deaths of the characters on the bus (such as the poet stating that he threw himself under a bus) handled in such a flip manner?
Lewis’s depiction of Hell is very interesting and also very confusing. I did not realize that the grey town was supposed to be ‘Hell’ until much later. And all the different types of people waiting for the bus and the quarrels they got into, I’m not completely sure what they represent, but it appears that they are all very irritable and unfriendly. But I think that Lewis described the loneliness of Hell very accurately. The people are so irritable and quarrelsome that they continue to move further and further away from each other, and like Napoleon, are caught up in their own thoughts and obsessions forever. One part that I do not understand is the fact that all the people are able to have anything they want by just thinking about it. How is that supposed to be an aspect of Hell? And there doesn’t seem to be any real punishment in Hell, except for the bleakness and waiting for the bus in long lines. This seems to be more like the state of ‘limbo’ described in Dante’s Inferno than ‘Hell’. And if all those ‘Ghosts’ were in Hell, how is it that they are able to get a chance to see Heaven and meet the Souls there? The Great Divorce is definitely a harder read than The Screwtape Letters and I think I need to hear discussion in class to better understand all this.
The society of hell that Lewis depicts seems essentially fractured. The people in it are constantly quarreling and criticizing one another, and in this state of perpetual conflict with their fellow man people move farther away from each other. The people who the narrator sees are nameless and are simply described by their physical appearance or personality traits. In chapters 2-5 particular characters stand out. There is the Tousle-Headed Poet, the Big Ghost (Man), and the Fat Ghost with the Cultured Voice. Each character seems to have really obvious character flaws yet continues to look down on other people in relation to themselves. Everyone seems to be practicing self-deception, fixated on blaming other people or on fighting over things. For example in the line at the bus stop all these people fight to get ahead or to be the first one on the bus even though there is enough room for everyone. To me in the end Lewis’ depiction of Hell is a picture of Humanity overrun by sin. There are no limits on people's baser natures and there can never be any real happiness in a world without true substance. It’s a lonely image, a city of perpetual twilight that’s made up of houses which can’t keep out rain and people who can’t get along. The hell that is depicted is not one of fire and brimstone but one of endless emptiness and gray misery.
After reading the first five chapters of the Great Divorce, I came out very confused. The story seems to have begun en media res as the reader is thrown into what seems at first to be just a strange and chaotic place. However, as it continues, you realize that in fact C.S. Lewis is depicting Hell. In this place, there always seems to be people around and yet, it seems that everyone is always lonely. They are always moving from place to place, looking for a place to settle and yet it seems that as soon as they find some place to stop, they are forced by the chaos to just keep moving along on their long lonely journey. Also, what seems to be strange at the beginning, yet later becomes clear, is that people seem to be shooting and “killing” each other, yet no one ever dies. This in a sense seems like a Hell because there is much suffering and loneliness and many seem to want to die, yet because of their eternal punishment, they are not able to die. Overall, the beginning of this book seemed to be very confusing but I think as we are able to dive deeper into the characters we will be able to understand the message Lewis is trying to teach us.
Lewis description of Hell was sort of confusing for me in the first couple of chapters. I realized that the grey town is actually hell. But I find this book a much harder read than the screwtape letters. I first noticed off the bat how many people were getting into arguments and quarrels at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. Everyone seemed to be unfriendly and sort of rude. But the underlying feel and theme is the loneliness, all of these people seem to move further and further away from each other. Then all of these people seem to have no real sense of direction or purpose. They are lost and really do not know how they got there nor where they are headed to. Causing there to be a deep riff and separation between the people. There really seems to be no punishment so far in his description of what hell is supposed to be like. As compared to the descriptions of hell in the bible, the lake of sulfur and burning brimstone, gnashing of teeth, and everlasting pain and suffering, and ultimately the separation from God.
I didn't think I was supposed to post anything since I'm presenting, but the instructions said we do, oops, sorry!
Here's what I'll be presenting on:
I'm focusing on two conversations in particular, both between spirits and ghosts (chapters 4 & 5) I want to analyze these two conversations to figure out what Lewis is saying through these characters.
I am also going to discuss the critiques and arguments many people have about Lewis's backing to the ideas in these conversations.
I pull a few passages from the Bible, but mainly stick to quotes from the text itself.
Melody, I sent you my powerpoint, which basically serves as an outline to my presentation!
Hello all, For my presentation, I will be going over themes that I found interesting in the first 5 chapters of "The Great Divorce". These themes will be: -FORGIVENESS -PRIDE -GREED -AUTHORITY -CHARITY
I will be using quotes from the text to analyze the themes.
After reading the first five chapters of C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, I see a similar theme linking the work to that of The Screwtape Letters. Where in The Screwtape Letters, the voice was speaking of a timeless struggle to win over the souls of humans, in The Great Divorce, hell seems to have been achieved. The rapport between the characters is devoid of love or humanity – something which Screwtape alluded to for several chapters, and which we discussed in class. The gray, somber atmosphere, C. S. Lewis’ interpretation of hell, is perhaps even more effective than the typical fire – and – brimstone which we all seem to share in a collective subconscious. The atmosphere in the first five chapters seems to be governed by denial, fear, and anger. The hollow feeling one gets from reading it, as well as the general sense of confusion, relates (in my mind) directly back to The Screwtape Letters, where Screwtape and his nephew were able to win over humans not through logic (because humans would eventually work their way out of any logical trap) but rather he wins them over through confusion, vagueness, and ambiguity. This ambiguity is reflected in the setting, where it is neither night nor day, but a perpetual twilight.
I found the relationship between the Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters to be very interesting. It was said in class that Lewis did not enjoy writing the Screwtape Letters, but I wonder if he also did not enjoy writing the Great Divorce. The latter focuses on what choices people make that can keep them from entering heaven. From the first lines of the novel we learn that the narrator finds himself in this place inexplicably. Lewis writes, “I seemed to be standing in a busy queue by myself on the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight.” This is exactly how I would imagine purgatory (one finds himself there and has no idea how he or she got there-it is almost like a dream, but this is a dream that one can wake up from). This state of limbo is where the narrator finds himself. Lewis suggests that when we die we enter a state of limbo until we have repented for our sins. However this state of limbo is not something that humans should strive for because as the story unfolds we see that Heaven is a much more peaceful place, and the ghosts in purgatory cannot enter Heaven.
ReplyDeleteSarah Vaughan
I found The Great Divorce to be quite confusing in the first couple of chapters. It is interesting how the first chapter begins with a character walking around in what appears to be an empty, rundown, gloomy city. It appears that the people at the bus stop are not aware of where they are nor how they got there. All of the people seem to be easily annoyed and angered. They're all bickering and arguing with one another. This town that they are all in is one that is simply grey, one where they can just "think" something they desire into existence. We also learn that there are in fact many people living in this place, except "they''ve been moving on and on. Getting further apart. They're so far off by now that they could never think of coming to the bus stop at all. Astronomical distances." It is interesting that Lewis appears to exaggerate this by continuing to emphasize how far apart they are. It's as if Lewis is telling that reader that Hell will actually be full of many many people. We also learn that there are a variety of people (i.e. Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Henry the Fifth) there.
ReplyDeleteThe Hell that C.S. Lewis depicts is at first a very lonely and subtly strange place, one that not even the inhabitants allow themselves to recognize for what it is. From the very start during the struggle for a place in line at the bus stop, the people are very isolated and it is every man for himself, not to mention the fact of the wide dispersal of houses and utter lack of community. The conversations that the narrator has on the bus show that many of the occupants are also incredibly self-absorbed, knowing only of their own struggles and focused only on what this trip can bring them. There aren’t even any of the typical exchanges of information that one would expect when conversing with a fellow passenger, the narrator does not give any information only receives it. Upon reaching their destination, one passenger explains that he did not bring along his ‘friend’ because he lived too far from the bus stop, making it inconvenient, and also that the friend was getting eccentric. These incredible viewpoints that are all so self-centered contrast sharply with what one Spirit tries to explain to a Ghost. “I do not look at myself. I have given myself up”, he explains that it is not only realizing how much you fail, it is about turning the focus entirely away from yourself so that no part of the focus remains on you. The utter lack of understanding that many of them possess is distressing yet not surprising considering the place they come from.
ReplyDeleteLike Sarah (first post), I was particularly intrigued by the novel's beginning lines: "“I seemed to be standing in a busy queue by myself on the side of a long, mean street. Evening was just closing in and it was raining. I had been wandering for hours in similar mean streets, always in the rain and always in evening twilight. Time seemed to have paused on that dismal moment” (467). C.S. Lewis sets the story in a very thought-provoking and meaning-filled "time". In the gray town, the time seems stuck ("paused") at the junction between day and night. This setting provides a parallel to the situation of the people stuck in the city. The inhabitants of Hell/Purgatory remain stuck and inbetween-- they cannot feel motivation to leave on the bus or reason to stay in any location when they get into quarrels. Rather everything is an ongoing moment of moving without meaning. Similarly, the time is fixed at twilight, never fully being day or moving onto night. The narrator describes wandering in this unending "evening twilight," with darkness closing in but not reaching the nighttime dark. Even roaming "for hours" leads him nowhere different.
ReplyDeleteThis beginning notion of time in the gray city is soon challenged by a "cultured" man on the bus. This ghost believes that "all the nightmare fantasies of [their] ancestors are being swept away. What [they] now see in the subdued and delicate half-light is the promise of the dawn: the slow turning of a whole nation towards the light. Slow and imperceptible, of course" (475). He later is confronted by a bright Spirit (his earthly friend Dick) for his intellectual pride and sin. He is so thickly set in his wrong beliefs, however, that he imagines the grey town could be heaven. He says the "grey town with its continual hope of morning (we must all live by hope, must we not?), with its field for definite progress, is, in a sense, Heaven, if only we have the eyes to see it? That is a beautiful idea" (484). The ghost twists the paused twilight and misinterprets it as dawn. He is oblivious that he has been in hell with absolutely o progress or hope. The turn to light that he describes is "slow and imperceptible" because it isn't happening at all! His case is a clear example of the stuck nature of time and the ghosts in hell.
In the first second section of The Great Divorce perception and reality were themes that stood out to me the most. While waiting for the bus C. S. Lewis finds himself in the company of on individuals on the side of a “long, mean street.” Upon the arrival of the bus C. S. Lewis describes the Driver as being “full of light” and mentions how the Driver uses one hand to drive and the other fan himself. On somewhat contrast the C. S. Lewis’ description, individuals amongst the queue have a different take on the driver and who and what he represents. They perceive the Drier as thinking of himself as too good to look at them. One person comments, “My dear, why can’t he act naturally” (4). In remark to this comment C. S. Lewis speculates that the queue’s perception of the Driver might be due to the position of authority that he holds as well as the attitude that he took in completing his job. As the story progresses a young boy sits next to Lewis on the bus and give his own analysis of the people in which he states “They’ve got cinemas and fish and chip shops and advertisements and all the sort of things they want. The appalling lack of any intellectual life doesn’t worry them” (5).
ReplyDeleteThough they all shared the same social space there exist a division between the individuals in the queue and C. S. Lewis and the young man that sat next to him on the bus. Based upon the context it is safe to say that this division is somewhat political and talks of financial spending also suggest a division in class. It is interesting to me how social factor play a key role in the ways in which people perceive reality. If reality is the real experience of individuals then perception must be based upon on that experience. If individuals are divided in social space then there are different realities that they experience. So perceptions cannot correct or incorrect. The role of intellect is in my opinion, the process of creating a “correct” perception of the world. It does this by excluding individual, ideas, and experiences that do not agree with that of others within academia. It is interesting for me to see how C. S. Lewis’ perception of his reality and others develops throughout the book.
The sort of society that lives in Lewis’ hell is empty of people. The people who initially entered the society and tried to live next to others in a neighborhood, sooner or later, found themselves quarreling with their neighbors. They changed neighborhoods in search for a more peaceful place to live, and even moved to almost empty neighborhoods, but they quarreled again, because the lack of peacefulness was a result of their agitating behavior. Examples of that are the Big Man that seems not to lose an opportunity to attack others when he sees fit, and Napoleon that despite living in a beautiful estate he unrestingly moves up and down thinking of who to blame for his defeat. It is also a society that lives in fear. Some of them do not admit it, saying that fears come from primitive superstitions, but all of them show the urge to cover the fear up, and pretend that it does not exist. Some of them, like the Intelligent Man, try to avoid talking about it, but his evident fear is the one that initially brings the conversation up. The society shows also the signs of materialism. No mater how much they have, they still want more. They can create everything with their imagination, but they are still looking for real things, so much that Intelligent Man believes he can make a profit by importing in the city real things.
ReplyDeleteI found Lewis’s depiction of the rainy city very interesting. Chapter one opens with style of writing I found unusual for Lewis. The initial description of the rainy city is marked by a sort of indistinct and inescapable squalor; “ however far I went I found only dingy lodging houses, small tobacconists, hoardings from which posters hung in rags, windowless warehouses, goods stations without trains, and bookshops of the sort that sell the works of Aristotle”. Everything here seems abandoned and unfulfilled. The arbitrary violence which comes out in Lewis description of the queue is also interesting. A whole range of vices are here on display, violence, greed, pretentious, jealousy, and deception. But it is interesting who utterly pointless the narrator makes them seem the driving force for most of these negative behaviours is ‘to get a place on the bus’, yet the reader implies that there was always plenty of space, it only seemed to be otherwise. This queue episode seems to a satirical commentary on the sheer uselessness of earthly behaviour in this supernatural environment. I don’t know if this a very good parallel to make but the description of hell very much reminded me of a film called, ‘Wristcutters’, the premise of which is people who commit suicide on earth are forced to live in a almost identical but ever so slightly worse version of the world. Something that I thought was interesting but that I couldn’t quite account for is why does Lewis have the narrator delay the revelation that the rainy city is hell (it doesn’t actually come out until chapter five) and why are the allusions to death, and the deaths of the characters on the bus (such as the poet stating that he threw himself under a bus) handled in such a flip manner?
ReplyDeleteLewis’s depiction of Hell is very interesting and also very confusing. I did not realize that the grey town was supposed to be ‘Hell’ until much later. And all the different types of people waiting for the bus and the quarrels they got into, I’m not completely sure what they represent, but it appears that they are all very irritable and unfriendly. But I think that Lewis described the loneliness of Hell very accurately. The people are so irritable and quarrelsome that they continue to move further and further away from each other, and like Napoleon, are caught up in their own thoughts and obsessions forever. One part that I do not understand is the fact that all the people are able to have anything they want by just thinking about it. How is that supposed to be an aspect of Hell? And there doesn’t seem to be any real punishment in Hell, except for the bleakness and waiting for the bus in long lines. This seems to be more like the state of ‘limbo’ described in Dante’s Inferno than ‘Hell’. And if all those ‘Ghosts’ were in Hell, how is it that they are able to get a chance to see Heaven and meet the Souls there? The Great Divorce is definitely a harder read than The Screwtape Letters and I think I need to hear discussion in class to better understand all this.
ReplyDeleteThe society of hell that Lewis depicts seems essentially fractured. The people in it are constantly quarreling and criticizing one another, and in this state of perpetual conflict with their fellow man people move farther away from each other. The people who the narrator sees are nameless and are simply described by their physical appearance or personality traits. In chapters 2-5 particular characters stand out. There is the Tousle-Headed Poet, the Big Ghost (Man), and the Fat Ghost with the Cultured Voice. Each character seems to have really obvious character flaws yet continues to look down on other people in relation to themselves. Everyone seems to be practicing self-deception, fixated on blaming other people or on fighting over things. For example in the line at the bus stop all these people fight to get ahead or to be the first one on the bus even though there is enough room for everyone. To me in the end Lewis’ depiction of Hell is a picture of Humanity overrun by sin. There are no limits on people's baser natures and there can never be any real happiness in a world without true substance. It’s a lonely image, a city of perpetual twilight that’s made up of houses which can’t keep out rain and people who can’t get along. The hell that is depicted is not one of fire and brimstone but one of endless emptiness and gray misery.
ReplyDeleteIm doing a presentation tomorrow on ideas from chapters 1-5...so im guessing that i don't have to post anything???
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first five chapters of the Great Divorce, I came out very confused. The story seems to have begun en media res as the reader is thrown into what seems at first to be just a strange and chaotic place. However, as it continues, you realize that in fact C.S. Lewis is depicting Hell. In this place, there always seems to be people around and yet, it seems that everyone is always lonely. They are always moving from place to place, looking for a place to settle and yet it seems that as soon as they find some place to stop, they are forced by the chaos to just keep moving along on their long lonely journey. Also, what seems to be strange at the beginning, yet later becomes clear, is that people seem to be shooting and “killing” each other, yet no one ever dies. This in a sense seems like a Hell because there is much suffering and loneliness and many seem to want to die, yet because of their eternal punishment, they are not able to die. Overall, the beginning of this book seemed to be very confusing but I think as we are able to dive deeper into the characters we will be able to understand the message Lewis is trying to teach us.
ReplyDeleteLewis description of Hell was sort of confusing for me in the first couple of chapters. I realized that the grey town is actually hell. But I find this book a much harder read than the screwtape letters. I first noticed off the bat how many people were getting into arguments and quarrels at the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. Everyone seemed to be unfriendly and sort of rude. But the underlying feel and theme is the loneliness, all of these people seem to move further and further away from each other. Then all of these people seem to have no real sense of direction or purpose. They are lost and really do not know how they got there nor where they are headed to. Causing there to be a deep riff and separation between the people. There really seems to be no punishment so far in his description of what hell is supposed to be like. As compared to the descriptions of hell in the bible, the lake of sulfur and burning brimstone, gnashing of teeth, and everlasting pain and suffering, and ultimately the separation from God.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think I was supposed to post anything since I'm presenting, but the instructions said we do, oops, sorry!
ReplyDeleteHere's what I'll be presenting on:
I'm focusing on two conversations in particular, both between spirits and ghosts (chapters 4 & 5) I want to analyze these two conversations to figure out what Lewis is saying through these characters.
I am also going to discuss the critiques and arguments many people have about Lewis's backing to the ideas in these conversations.
I pull a few passages from the Bible, but mainly stick to quotes from the text itself.
Melody, I sent you my powerpoint, which basically serves as an outline to my presentation!
Hello all,
ReplyDeleteFor my presentation, I will be going over themes that I found interesting in the first 5 chapters of "The Great Divorce". These themes will be:
-FORGIVENESS
-PRIDE
-GREED
-AUTHORITY
-CHARITY
I will be using quotes from the text to analyze the themes.
See you in class! :)
After reading the first five chapters of C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, I see a similar theme linking the work to that of The Screwtape Letters. Where in The Screwtape Letters, the voice was speaking of a timeless struggle to win over the souls of humans, in The Great Divorce, hell seems to have been achieved. The rapport between the characters is devoid of love or humanity – something which Screwtape alluded to for several chapters, and which we discussed in class. The gray, somber atmosphere, C. S. Lewis’ interpretation of hell, is perhaps even more effective than the typical fire – and – brimstone which we all seem to share in a collective subconscious. The atmosphere in the first five chapters seems to be governed by denial, fear, and anger. The hollow feeling one gets from reading it, as well as the general sense of confusion, relates (in my mind) directly back to The Screwtape Letters, where Screwtape and his nephew were able to win over humans not through logic (because humans would eventually work their way out of any logical trap) but rather he wins them over through confusion, vagueness, and ambiguity. This ambiguity is reflected in the setting, where it is neither night nor day, but a perpetual twilight.
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