The Voyage of the Dawn Treader starts the way every book in the C.S. Lewis written Chronicles of Narnia starts; with children in the real world. This time, the Pevensies that will guide us through the book are only Lucy and Edmund, being the youngest of the original four, and the only ones still allowed to return to Narnia. Accompanying them this time is their unbearably dull and unimaginative cousin Eustace Scrubb. Eustace takes the mantle of the nonbeliever/skeptic that “needs” Narnia the most, so when he comes upon the Pevensies chatting about the Narnian look of a painting he immediately begins to complain. So when the kids go through the painting into the Narnia sea, it’s safe to say Eustace loses his mind. While the Pevensies are greeted by old friends with open arms, Eustace refuses to believe he’s in Narnia and spends the beginning of the trip asking for the English consultant. The group of friends that rescue the children from the water and welcome them is filled with some familiar faces. The most notable is Caspian, the hypothetical character of the previous novel in the series, and current ruler of a peace filled Narnia. The other big name is the rapier wielding Reepicheep, another hold over from the previous novel. This large talking mouse immediately takes interest in the constantly whining of Eustace and strikes up a budding friendship with him. Eustace and Lucy begin to speak with Caspian about the going ons of Narnia in the three Narnia years that have passed since the events of the last novel. Caspian goes into detail about the peaceful but expansionist conquests of the wilder parts of Narnia and lets the Pevensies in on his plans to find out the fates of the seven lost Narnian lords, sent away by Caspian’s evil uncle Miraz while he was still in power.
The ship from the painting that the children fell into was Caspian’s ship, the so-called Dawn Treader, and the transportation for the entirety of the novel. The first stop on their trip to discern the fates of the seven lost Lords is the Lonely Islands. The Lonely Islands were conquered for Narnia by the Pevensies when the first ruled over the land, but have since fallen into the hands of slave traders and pirates. As the approach the Island, Caspian and the children are captured by slavers and brought to market. Even though Narnian law forbids slavery, the market for it has flourished in the lonely islands. While no one in particular finds themselves interested in purchasing the wimpy looking and whiny Eustace, Caspian is bought up before he even makes it to the sale block. It turns out that the purchaser of Caspian is actually the first of the seven missing Lords, and one of the closest to Caspian, Lord Bern. Bern, along with Caspian, manages to free the rest of the children and overthrow the tyrannical and governor Gumpas, supplanting and replacing him with Lord Bern whom he names the Duke of the Lonely Islands.
The Second Island that the end up on is deserted, and while the rest of the crew sets out to find supplies and materials to fix the ship with, Eustace sneaks off to hide and get out of work. What happens to Eustace on this Island is the first of the “seven deadly sins” oriented tasks that approach each of our heroes; namely greed. Eustace stumbles upon the den of a Dragon and immediately stuffs his pockets with gold and jewels. But the bracelet he puts on his arm turn him into a Dragon. While in the guise of the Dragon, he comes to realize how awful he was and uses his new found strength to help fix the ship, causing Aslan (the Godly Lion of Narnia) to turn him back into a boy. Liked talk about in class Aslan ripped off layers of skin or sins you can say. When I was reading Steve Fettke “The Spirit of God Hovered” I came across on page 3 where social value is conveyed in Paul’s expression in Colossians. “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.” I just thought the connection was neccasary to add to Dawn Treader. But anyways the story goes on. Caspian, upon seeing the band on the Eustace Dragon, realizes that the band belonged to the second of the Lost Lords and the crew returns to the sea in search of the next island.
The remainder of the book deals with the remaining five missing Lords. Caspian and Edmund find themselves dealing with their own greed on an island with a looking pool that turns anything submerged in it to gold, where the find out this pool took the life of the third Lost Lord. On and Island filled with invisible one footed buffoons called duffers, Lucy deal with her own vice of vanity by using a spell of beauty. Aslan however comes to her a guides her away from that destructive path.The fourth lost Lord is found on an Island constantly shrouded in darkness. They meet Lord Rhoop here, a man at the edge of his sanity due to the strangeness of the Island. Now, having found the fate of four of the Lost Lords, Caspian and crew set out beyond the edges of the known seas and this begins to splinter the crew who is already tired from the stress filled voyage. But when they come across the Island of the Star, morale is raised, due highly to the fact that all the remaining lost Lords are found there. The Lords however are in a enchanted sleep and the crew struggles to figure out a way to awaken them. As if summoned by their plight, and “Star” descends down upon them, and impresses upon them that the only way to awaken the remaining lords is travel to the very real “edge of the world” and leave a member of the crew behind. Leaving a member behind reminds me of the movie Armageddon. As the approach the edge of the world, the children, and Reepicheep set out, leaving Caspian behind only because Aslan said so. Sometimes God does that with our lives just tells us to go or stay or even go away from things. I think I can make a general conclusion to this meaning following God’s will for your life. So, Reepicheep valiantly offers himself up as the crew member to stay behind. Aslan then appears to the children and send them home, proclaiming that Edmund and Lucy won’t be returning. When the children all return home at the end of the book, everyone remarks the very noticeable changes in Eustace, brought upon by his adventures in Narnia.
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