An Appreciation

'"Yes!" said a great voice behind their backs. "It is more magic." They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself."

This is an excerpt I particularly enjoyed from The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. Something about it just makes it seem powerful to me, Aslan coming back to life because he was an unevil creature. That's like in a lot of books, how an innocent character is shown undeserving cruelty, but this character becomes the hero of the story. A book that reminds me of Narnia is Redwall by Brian Jacques, which is about forest animals that fight off their enemies in battle. Though unlike Narnia it has no mythical creatures, it still has a similar concept, and I enjoyed both books very very much as a child. There seems to be something about fantasy books revolving around woodland animals vs. evil that captures the interest of many children. Perhaps it's because it reflects on what happens in the real world that we all have to face when we grow up, but in a form that isn't as serious, using animals and creatures that reflect their character and role in classic good vs. evil fantasy stories, and there's always a more "magic" element that is widely beloved by all ages.

The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe has magic elements such as magical lands and mythical creatures like fauns, werewolves, menotaurs, cenotaurs, and other leagues of monsters, whose kind reflect their personality and role in the story. For example, the more menacing creatures like the werewolves and menotaurs are on the evil side, but the kinder-seeming ones are on the good side. There's always been that kind of role in fantasy with characters as animals - foxes are evil and cunning, mice are small yet brave heroes. These good-v-evil creatures have battles against each other in which good almost always wins. Which is a strange because like I said before, this reflects on the real world, and in the real world, evil wins a lot. Do these books make good win to make children think this world isn't as scary as it is, even though that they will find out that it is anyway? Or is it to help them escape from this big bad world, into a better one?

I believe in the latter. Fantasy is called fantasy because it's something you can escape to - which we all must do once in a while. The world is a bad place, one can't deny that it is. That's something i appreciate about the Narnia books and fantasy in general - it gives you the freedom to a better (or in some cases, worse) world.

However, around the time The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe was published, people discouraged fantasy books - they were only for younger children. Adults feared that if older children read too much fantasy, they would lose sight of reality and go mad. The Narnia books were somewhat challenged at this time period. But it hasn't been 70 years yet and the book is already considered a classic. That's also something I appreciate about it, so many other people love it that it's famously known, yet they barely even gave it a chance at first.

All in all, my appreciation is that the Narnia books are a fantasy-escape not just for young kids but all ages, and it also provides some insight on real life as well. That people will betray you, that there is evil, that the weak can become heroes, and that you can find magic wonders in life, if you look hard enough,