The Great C. S. Lewis Reread: The Problem(s) of Susan

C.S. Lewis failed. He failed to clearly say what he was trying to say. He failed his readers. He failed Susan.

When I read The Last Battle as a kid, and got to the moment when Susan was “no longer a friend of Narnia” I was shocked. Well, I thought, there are still some pages left to go. I’m sure she’ll be back before the end. But she wasn’t. And all of her siblings and friends, her cousin, even her parents, were romping along through New Narnia without ever mentioning her again.

It felt strange, and dismissive, and horrible. Much of the end of the book is about catching up with old friends, with cameos and reunions with beloved companions from previous books, even those who were dead—Reepicheep and Fledge and Puddleglum and Caspian—and yet somehow Susan never gets a moment. We don’t even peek in on her back on Earth, and no one thinks to ask, “Is Sue alright?” Read More

Also See:
5 Reasons C.S. Lewis Is Even More Relevant Now Than You Realize

I read the books of the Chronicles of Narnia when they were first published and have reread them over and over again since that time. I do not recollect even as a young boy being shocked by the moment when Peter says that Susan was "no longer a friend to Narnia," Lewis had prepared his readers in the earlier books for that moment. But I gather from this article that other readers were shocked, perhaps because they had come to identify with Susan. On several occasions in the books Aslan had told one of the characters that he only told them their own stories, not the stories of others. The ending of Susan's story was not one that the reader would be told. The Chronicles of Narnia does have several characters whose stories end tragically or whose full stories are not told. Caspian's father was murdered by his uncle. The star's daughter was bitten by the Lady of Green Kirtle in the guise of a serpent and died. One of the exiled Telemarine lords was turned into a gold statue. Every story did not have a happy ending. Lewis did not shelter his young readers from betrayal and death.