Award: Challenged Book List 1990-2000.
Exposition: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are evacuated to a professor’s house during the war for safety. Left on their own they find a magical wardrobe that takes them to another country.
Conflict: Between good and evil, the inhabitants of Narnia and those that want to take over to destroy them. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have to figure out whose side they are on and fight accordingly.
Rising Action: As the four children go into the wardrobe, they discover the land of Narnia and meet many of the inhabitants. They also meet Aslan, a lion, who ends up guiding them through the fight against the evil white witch. Aslan has given each of them special articles that help not only during the fight in this book but in other books as well.
Climax: Edmund repents of his choice to follow the white witch. Aslan gives his life in Edmund's stead, but later comes back from the dead as those that give their life freely can’t really be killed. The children along with the inhabitants of Narnia have to fight against the white witch in order to save Narnia.
Falling Action: The children, Aslan, and Narnians fight and eventually overpower the white witch’s followers and kill the white witch. The four children become rulers of Narnia and grow into adulthood during a peaceful reign.
Resolution: On a hunting trip following a white stag, the four children stumble across a lamp-post which reminds them of a vague dream of a past life. They dismount their horses and going toward the lamp-post they find branches of trees resembling fur coats. The next thing they know they are tumbling out of the wardrobe as children once more. They go to tell the professor about what had happened and he believes them.
Literary qualities: This series is an allegory of the Christian walk and symbolism is seen throughout this book. Aslan is a symbol of Christ as he guides the inhabitants and saves them, the white witch is a symbol of evil and temptation. The white witch not only sits up high on her sled, but also wants the country to be in a perpetual state of winter which symbolizes her feelings of superiority and wanting no one to have feelings of happiness. Just as parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings, this series is the same.
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