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The Silver Chair (spolier alert!)

Posted by Josh on February 20, 2012 in Book Review |

In the sixth book of The Chronicles of Narnia, (this series is about people from our world entering into the land of Narnia) Eustace Scrubb (who had been in book five), and his friend Jill Pole.   They enter Narnia when they go through a door that was usually locked.  Jill and Eustace get separated.  Jill meets Aslan, king and creator of Narnia.  He tells her that she has a mission to accomplish, to find the Lost Prince of Narnia Aslan tells her the signs she must look for on her search for the son of King Caspian.  Jill catches up to Eustace and they arrive in time to see King Caspian, who is now very old, set out on a journey to search for Aslan.

They went the Owls Parliament, an Owl government that talked with them on their plan to find the Lost Prince of Narnia.  After talking out a plan, Eustace, and Jill set out to meet someone who would help them on their search for Prince Rillian.  It was too dark to see who their partner to-be was, but when they awoke the next morning, they found out it was a marsh-wiggle named Puddlegum.  That morning, they set out to the place where the lost Prince was last seen, but for days they trekked through cold, rainy places and still didn’t reach the place.

When they were close, a lady and a silent knight whom they passed on the way told them about a town of the “Gentle Giants” where they could stay.  The children were all for going and won the argument with Puddlegum, who said that the lady might have told them about the town just so it would throw them off course.  Once inside the gates, they were treated to warm meals, hot baths, and warm beds.  After a while, they realized that they should get on with the journey and leave Harfang, the name of the town.  When they were getting ready to leave, they overheard the giants saying the children and the marsh-wiggle would make good pies for the festival the next day!  That night, when all the giants were asleep, they crept outside, but were chased by a returning hunting party.  They escaped into a small cave until they fell down into a hole, which turned out to be Underland (this is the Lost Prince was being held captive)!

It was pitch black and they were soon captured by hundreds of earthmen.  They led them to a room where Prince Rillian was (he was the silent knight they met who was with the lady on the road)!  However they didn’t know this because he was under a spell, which had been put on him by the White Witch who had come back to life.  He told them how great the lady was, and also that in his spell came a hour in which he became a “madman” so he would be tied in a silver chair (you see, he did not know the witch had put the spell on him).

They decided to stay with him during his hour which he threw his fit, to observe while the witch was not there.  What they observed was peculiar.  It was that in his hour that he had the “fit”, it actually the only time he was in his right mind.  Once his rescuers realized this, and who he was, they untied him and were about to leave, when the witch entered!  She closed the door, and threw magic powder on the fire and it spread into the room, and the other four felt their grip on their mind going away.

Just when it looked like they were going to be enchanted, Puddlegum fighting like mad to stay in control of his mind, walked over, and despite burning his foot, put out the fire and the others broke out of the enchantment.  The Witch, who was now very angry, turned into a big serpent.  Despite a big struggle at first Eustace, Puddlegum, and Prince Rillian killed the serpent.  They heard a loud crash and saw that  underland was destroying itself, because the witch had died (she put a spell on the land so it would do this if she died).  They decided to make their way to the site where the earthmen had been digging to the surface world, so they could get the upper world before it was too late (the witch planned to attack the surface and to make Rillian king so he could enforce her orders).  They found out on their way that the earthmen had a spell put on them too, but it was broken when the witch died.

After getting to the point to where all the earthmen went back to their home which was lower in the ground, they started on their journey.  They traveled in darkness and what seemed like hours later ran up against wall.  Blue light was shining through a hole, and only Jill could fit out.  It turned out to be moonlight, and she found herself in Narnia.  She found dwarfs and badgers and other Narnians, and they helped dig the others out.  The next morning, they set out for the castle, Cair Paravel, so Prince Rillian could see his father, King Caspian. King Caspian returns that day and he is dying, but still gets to see his son in time to bless him, before he dies.  After that, Aslan sends Eustace and Jill back to their world, since they had accomplished their mission.

There are two things that I think the author is trying to say through the book.  They are don’t judge someone by their outer appearance, judge it on how they act or what they do.  The second one is beware what you say to strangers and don’t trust them.  Another story that is similar is the previous book in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  It was similar because a search party was searching for seven long lost lords of Narnia, just like a search party was searching for Prince Rilllian.  I liked this book better because for the other book, I knew what was going to happen because I had seen the movie.

I thought that the sixth Narnia book was very, very, good.  I personally think that the most exciting chapters were 9-12, in which you couldn’t put the book down (I unfortunately had to once to go to bed!).  I would give a 4 out of 5 star rating.  I thought C.S. Lewis did a very good job with the book and I really enjoyed it!

 

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