C.S. Lewis' Portrayal of Truth in Fiction

Reasearch Proposal

Abstract: Clive Staple Lewis, considered to be one of the most renowned in Christian apologetics, strove to illuminate certain truths about Christianity in his writing about Christ, death and resurrection, and Christian conversions.  What makes Lewis unique as a writer, however, is his use of fiction to illuminate these truths.  Lewis often wrote his fictional pieces in the manner of fairytales.  Through the use of allegories and imaginative stories in The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and The Pilgrim’s Regress, C.S. Lewis emphasized spiritual journeys and growth many Christians alike can relate to.  He emphasized each and every human’s need for God’s love and his salvation.

Research Questions: What truths does Lewis want to convey similarly throughout The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and The Pilgrim’s Regress, as well as other pieces of fiction?  What characteristics of Lewis’ writing style correspond with characteristics of myths and fairytales? 
How does his use of fiction create meaning and convey the truths he wishes to convey well?

Literature Review:

            “The Literary Bloke” about C.S. Lewis himself provides a cultural background for Lewis and his writing style.  As J. I. Packer writes, “[Lewis] was clever at finding the best literary forms for what he had to say, and rich in analogies that are both arguments and illustrations in one.”  This quote describes how Lewis used illustrations—i.e. fairytale worlds—to portray the truth about his theological views in a Christian’s life.  Lewis himself was a convert, and he discovered his truth about Christianity from that struggle, “allegorizing it, along with much else, in The Pilgrim’s Regress”.  This criticism highlights how “this crafting of myth as evangelistic persuasion is a unique excellence in Lewis’ work”, and, as he was an “accessible exponent of Christian truth and wisdom”, demonstrates that his writing style was one in which fairytale/myth was used to convey his beliefs (truths).

            “Finding the Permanent in the Political: C.S. Lewis as a Political Thinker” provides background about the truth Lewis wished to reveal in his writing, necessary for this research topic because one must understand the truth that Lewis illuminated through his writing style.  Per John G. West, “[Lewis’] concern was not policy but principle; political problems of the day were interesting to him only insofar as they involved matters that endured.”  He focused on subtle forms of oppression as related to tyranny and morality, especially.  Arguing “for the existence of a natural moral law known by all through human reason”, Lewis turned away from the conventional source of Christian morality as founded upon the Bible.  He relied upon the Bible but also strove to find an explanation for why those not called Christians could be good, moral citizens within society.

            “The Reluctant Convert in Surprised by Joy and The Great Divorce” analyzes how, within the topic of Christian conversions especially, C.S. Lewis wrote fictional pieces that mirrored the conversion in his own life.  As Allred writes, “The book The Great Divorce presents several fictional conversions that mirror the conversion Lewis relates in his autobiography”, as well as, “These common elements reveal Lewis’ perception of the essential details of conversion and show that his fiction mirrored his life.”  The truth Lewis discovered about Christianity was revealed through his fictional stories—an idea specific to the guiding topic of the research paper.  The truth Lewis discovered through his own conversion was that mentors always play a role in conversions, we must choose to accept God by our free will, and the conversion process includes pain.

            The previous three pieces of literary criticism provided a cultural background for the truth which C.S. Lewis wished to convey in his pieces of fiction especially.  In “The Platonic Foundation of The Great Divorce”, David Allred then argues that Lewis was an imitator, though not a carbon copy, of Plato’s method of writing, especially in The Great Divorce.  “The Great Divorce is founded on Plato’s ideas concerning universal forms, a world of shadows, the power of reason, even the use of imagination.”  However, according to the author, Plato didn’t think art improved morality.  C.S. Lewis, on the other hand, wrote The Great Divorce in a way that is “supernatural and extremely imaginative, all things that hint at where Lewis ceases to copy Plato”.  Both Lewis and Plato wanted to write about the truth that led to leaving the “shadowlands”, and both used allegories to understand the truth about reality (Lewis in his fictional novels; Plato in his Allegory of the Cave).  The truth they strove to illuminate, however, was different—“Lewis’ aim was a Christian people: Plato’s aim, an ideal society”.

            Finally, in “The Childlike in George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis”, Dr. Don W. King analyzes the childlike versus the childish in C.S. Lewis.  What is especially striking is what Dr. King quotes from Lewis.  He quotes that Lewis insists he “speaks to the adult, the child within the adult.  He speaks to everyone.”  This type of writing “writes for the child within the adult”—a writing style reminiscent of the purpose original fairytales had.  Original fairytales, too, were written to highlight a truth to a more adult audience, rather than the child audience fairytales today have come to be written for.