 
You can barely even see that my lights are on.
Hey guys! My name's Miranda and today I'm going to be
talking about my all-time favorite series in the whole
entire universe.
 
The Chronicles of Narnia!
For those of you who do not know, The Chronicles
of Narnia is a children's fantasy series
that follows around different characters as they adventure through
the magical world of Narnia.
This series was made by C.S. Lewis in
the 1950s so it is a classic.
Although this series is considered a children's series
personally, I would consider this more of a middle-grade
or young adult fantasy series. there are a lot of
complex issues and topics that are discussed
and there's a lot of advanced vocabulary
that I definitely would not have understood if I read this in elementary school.
I hold this series near and dear to my heart. One of the things
I really enjoyed about this series was the amount
of creatures! Literally, there are talking
animals, there are unicorns, giants, elves, dwarfs
monopods- wow my dog started barking
I apologize. Sea serpents, werewolves, monopods
which I didn't even know were a thing. I also didn't know about
Marshwigglers, but they are half human
half frog if you were wondering. There literally are too many to name.
I also really
really enjoyed C.S. Lewis and his writing
style. He really knows how to create
beautifully flawed characters and
he really knows how to immerse the reader in
an atmosphere. The only character in the Chronicles of Narnia
that is perfect is Aslan the Lion, because he is
literally the God of Narnia and he created Narnia
so of course he would be perfect and beautiful and I-
I love him. But all of the other characters are
so realistic and I actually
really related to them.
Like, every single character I felt as though
I was once in their place and I feel what they're feeling
I am also a really big fan of C.S. Lewis's
atmospheres. I am not joking, in the 6th book
specifically, they were underground
at one point in the Underworld. A volcano erupted
in the cave that they were in
and I kind of freaked out because I felt as though
I was going to get destroyed by this volcano.
The Chronicles of Narnia
actually made me feel as though I
physically was there. Not just my head, physically was
going on these adventures and these journeys with these incredibly flawed
and beautifully created characters.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about the Chronicles of
Narnia was the amount of Biblical
allusions that are in every single novel.
If you've never read the Bible, you know you won't pick up on
those but that's fine. It doesn't really take away from the
whole experience of the Chronicles of Narnia.
But, if you've read the Bible, you will see
all of the different allusions that C.S. Lewis creates
in his stories, and it's so
good. It's just really refreshing reading
a series that has Biblical allusions
from a different point of view and I found that so
fascinating. Another thing I forgot to mention is that
every single one of these books has so
many different meanings and so many different lessons
on life and humanity. If I was to
discuss one book for 10 minutes,
I would only scratch the surface on what
C.S. Lewis was trying to portray in that book. My
eyes were opened to a lot of issues
that I didn't even realize were a thing until I
read this series. It was so enlightning. I really wasn't
expecting that from a "children's"
fantasy series. Now, I am going to discuss
every single book seperately. Alright,
so, the first book in the series is the Magician's
Nephew. In this book, we follow around two
neighbors, Digory and Polly, and they go on
adventures all the time. They're best friends. During
one of their journeys, they actually find out that Digory's Uncle
is a magician. When their uncle finds
out that Digory and Polly have discovered his
secret, he actually tricks them into touching these
magical rings that he created, and they end up being
teleported into a completely different world. You end up meeting
Aslan in this novel. He is the creator
of Narnia. He is a lion, he's known as "The Great Lion."
When they meet Aslan, he is actually singing
in a barren land, and as he's singing, plants
and animals are sprouting up from the ground.
I loved it so much, it was so beautiful!
The second book in this series
is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and this one is I
would have to say, the most famous book of this entire series.
In this novel, we follow around four main characters
who are siblings. Peter, Susan,
Lucy, and Edmond. When they end up staying in a London
house, they stumble upon a magical wardrobe that
transports them into
a different world (which they later find out is Narnia)! When
they enter Narnia, they find out that the
ruler is a wicked witch who has set a spell
on all of the land so that it is eternal winter.
I loved this! I got so many different vibes,
I even got some Medusa, in there,
because the wicked witch actually has a power
of turning people into stone, and
that was really cool, too.
The third book in this series is The Horse and His Boy.
In this book, we follow around
four main characters once again:
Shasta, Bree, Aravis, and Hwin. At the very
beginning of this novel, we only know of
Shasta and his horse, Bree. We find out
that Shasta is under very very harsh control of
his father, who ends up being someone completely different.
We find that out later in the book. Shasta is basically
a slave to his father. He does
everything, he actually gets abused. His father was about
to sell him to slavery
when Shasta decided to run away with his horse, Bree.
As they're journeying along,
having no idea where they're going, what they're looking for,
Bree ends up speaking to
Shasta which scares the crap out of him. I mean, it
would scare the crap out of me, too, but like, hey it's fine.
They end up deciding that they are going to travel to Narnia and
as they journey, they end up meeting Aravis and
her horse, Hwin, who is also a talking horse from
Narnia as well. I feel like this
book has the most charcter development out of
all of the books. You really feel like you know
these characters! The fourth book in
this series is Prince Caspian, and this one
is quite self-explanatory. We literally
learn about the journey's of Prince Caspian. Prince
Caspian is...
supposed to be...supposed to be, the ruler of
Narnia, but when Narnia is under attack,
he realizes that he really has to step up
and become a greater leader than he's
really comfortable being. I'm pretty sure that
Lucy and Edmond end up showing
up in this book as well. They end up helping Prince
Caspian in his journey of becoming the
rightful ruler of the magical land.
Although the plot was very simple in this book, I really
really enjoyed it. And there were a lot
of small details and a lot of meanings, just like all
of the other books, that I completely was
entranced by. The fifth book in this series
is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It is
my absolute favorite, so I will talk a little bit more
about this one towards the end. The sixth book in the series
is The Silver Chair. In this book, we follow
around our two characters, Austace and Jill
as they end up becoming transported magically
into Narnia. That's
always how they enter Narnia, it's always magically.
It's never something that's understandable. They are ordered
by Aslan to find an encaptured
prince, and they have no details of who this
prince is. They have no idea who he is, where he is,
what he's doing. This book follows
around their journey, trying to discover the prince
and trying to find out who he's captured by.
I really liked this story because of all of
the encorporations of all the different creatures. They
actually end up meeting a marshwiggler named Puddleglum.
And he ends up being one of their best friends
on this journey. We also learn a lot about the giants
in this book, because they sneak into a giant's house
and they are captured. That part is so crazy.
I wish I could tell you what the silver chair means,
but I can't really because that would give away things.
But it does mean something, and the serpent, this serpent
means something, too. And, the last book in
this series is called The Last Battle, which is
pretty self-explanatory in itself, as well.
I...
died a little bit on the inside
when I was reading this book because there's a lot
of character manipulation. There's a lot of
lessons to be learned
about trust and hope and faith in this book. We follow
around mostly older characters who we've
met before in the series, except for
one new character named King Tirian.
Not Prince Tirian, King Tirian who is the last king of
Narnia. When Tirian hears of this rumor that
Aslan has enslaved
half of the creatures of Narnia, Tirian
ends up becoming very very skeptical of this and ends up
going on a journey with his unicorn, Jewel,
trying to find Aslan. It ends up not being Aslan,
that's where actually all of the manipulation
revolves around. It hurt me to read about these
animals and creatures being put under this oppressive
rule of someone they realize isn't really who they say
they are. It was a very well done representation
of manipulation within our society. I just
absolutely adored this ending
to the book. I cried on the last page because
the last page was so incredibly beautiful. Now I want to
discuss
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a little bit more because I have so many things to talk
about with this one. In this book, we follow around two of our old
characters, Lucy and Edmond, and their cousin
Austace who is a complete brat, sorry to
say. They end up being magically transported
through a painting into Narnia
and they end up landing on Prince Caspain's
battle ship. They end up going on a
voyage trying to find the ends of the earth.
One of my absolute favorite parts in this book
is when they reach the "Dark Island."
It's not an island at all, it's just a giant, thick
mass of darkness, and when you enter it,
you end up seeing no sunlight for days upon days.
My favorite character actually is introduced in this
book. His name is Reepicheep and he is a mouse. A talking
mouse. I love him to death.
When everybody on board the ship sees the Dark
Island, everybody except Reepicheep want
to avoid it at all costs. Reepicheep
actually ends up speaking up and asks them
"why are you avoiding the Dark Island? Are we doing it out of fear?
Because, if so, we need to go through it."
There are so many good quotes in this book.
I can't even begin to explain them all to you. Besides
the Dark Island, the characters also see the
Island of Voices, I loved that chapter as well.
They also crash land on an island where
Austace, the horrible snobby cousin,
he actually ends up turning into a
dragon because he gets as greedy as a dragon.
I absolutely adored that representation of greed
because it really shows you how greed works and how
easily it can take over our hearts and our actions.
It spoke to me a lot. Another island that
they crash land onto actually has a lake
where if you jump into it, you turn into solid gold.
I just- every chapter in this book I
completely adored. Now, those were only a few
of the meanings and only a few of my favorite parts in
this book. There are so many others that I could talk about
but it would take a long long time. This book is definitely
my favorite book in this series. Alrighty, that's going to
be it with this video! I love you all, please
be safe, make good choices, and I'll see you all next monday!
WOOOO!
