The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

Title: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Author: C.S. Lewis
Series: Chronicles of Narnia #3
Genre: Classic, Fantasy, Middle Grade
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 256
Reason Read: Just Because
Rating:

Also in this series: The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Silver Chair, The Last Battle

My Thoughts

After reading THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, PRINCE CASPIAN is still my favorite of the series so far, but I enjoyed reading this story very much. I enjoyed all the adventures the characters had and all the people the characters met. At first, I didn’t like Eustace and he almost poisoned the book for me. But then, I started to ignore him and really enjoyed the story. Of course, it was very nice to see him change for the better as it made reading the book a bit more enjoyable. 

My favorite part about this story was how much Aslan was in this book. Even though he was in the other four as well, we didn’t see a lot of him. In THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW, he doesn’t show up until about the middle of the book. In THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, he doesn’t show up until a little after the middle of the book and the story focuses on the other characters until the stone table. In THE HORSE AND HIS BOY, Aslan’s there a lot, but you don’t always realize it’s him until the end when he tells the characters it’s him. In PRINCE CASPIAN, Aslan doesn’t show up until Lucy sees him, and again the story focuses on other characters so he’s not there that much. Whereas, in this story, he’s there almost throughout the entire story.

Even though I know Lucy and Edmund find their way back to Narnia in the last book, I was pretty sad when Aslan told them they were too old to return. I’m very intrigued as to why they (and Peter) get to come back. 

I’m going to miss Reepicheep. I hope he somehow finds his way back into one or both of the last two books.

2022 Reread

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is my favorite book in this series so far, even more so than PRINCE CASPIAN. I love how Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace get to Narnia, and I love reading about their adventures while sailing the Dawn Treader with Caspian and his crew. I think all of the different circumstances they find themselves in on each of the islands are interesting. My two favorite islands are Dragon Island and the one with the Dufflepuds.

I’m glad Dragon Island is one of the first islands they sail to. I don’t think I could’ve taken Eustace’s constant nagging, complaining, conceitedness any longer. The interesting thing is that Eustace actually becomes one of my favorite characters in the series after his time as a dragon. I love getting more of Reepicheep in this adventure. He’s such a fun character. If I had a chance of meeting him, I’d be exactly like Lucy, wanting to pick him up and cuddle him. I adore him so much.

I said this with THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and PRINCE CASPIAN, but I think every one of these books ends kind of abruptly and a little bit weirdly. This one is probably the least out of the three so far because it at least winds down unlike the previous two.

As with the previous two, a few things regarding the allegory stood out to me during this read. I thought the way Eustace explained how he transformed back into a human with Aslan’s help was really interesting. It was almost like he was baptized and had his sins washed away. Instead of Aslan bleeding like Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane, Lewis turned it around by making Eustace hurt and bleed after Aslan cut through his dragon skin with his teeth or claws (I can’t remember which).

The other thing I noticed about the allegory is how Aslan was really only in this story via second-hand accounts and the characters seeing visages of him when they were in danger. It was almost like Lewis was trying to portray Aslan as those of us who believe in Christ talk to Him through prayer.

I do like the ending when Aslan tells Lucy and Edmund the reason the Pevensies came to Narnia in the first place was so they’d recognize Him in their own world. It helps me make sense of why Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are now too old to return to Narnia, even though in my mind no one is too old to be in Christ’s presence.

My rating stayed the same after this reread.