Chronicles of Narnia!!: Rhetorical Analysis

In Alicia D. Costello’s article, “Examining Mythology in "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis,” there is discussion about the amount of myths in the series, Chronicles of Narnia. The author’s purpose of writing this is to show how the characters in the stories take in narratives about Narnian history. The purpose of this is so that we may understand what makes up a myth. When something happens, a story is told about it and many times these stories are not the complete story because it will be told in words, passed down from generation to generation. Though after being retold many times the stories are still believed in even though the ones hearing the stories may not have been there, they still believe what they are told and they still believe in what happened. The audience for this essay is for people who have read the Chronicles of Narnia books and for people who are interested in myths. The author writes to this audience by using the character names from the books that you would not know unless you had read the books. They seem unaware that anyone other than readers of the books would ready this essay, so they continue to write, referencing back to the books.

I was not surprised much while reading this article because of the way it was written. The way this essay was written was sort of written in a predictable way because each paragraph started the same way. The author explains the features of a myth and then gives examples from the Chronicles of Narnia of how each myth is believed. This is a common pattern of writing that stays constant throughout each paragraph.

The writer of “Examining Mythology in "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis,” Alicia D. Costello, proves herself as a reliable authority figure for this subject about myths. Alicia D. Costello has many resources listed in her text and she cites them all. This shows that she studied many things while she was writing including works published by C. S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, and books that examine certain aspects, from the Chronicles of Narnia, that seem to be more than what they are to the general reader.

Alicia D. Costello does not use very many transitions between the paragraphs that she writes.  A problem that I found while reading was that some of the explanations that were written were too long for me to fully understand what was being said. The ideas of myths were restated efficiently after each example, and this made it hard to recognize each idea. The paragraphs about the qualities about the myths in the Chronicles of Narnia were not very easy to follow because the specifications about each myth were not completed thoroughly before the author started a new one.

The writer’s choice of words made it easier to understand. She used many words that were related to the Chronicles of Narnia and because I have read the book series, I could understand the point that Costello was trying to get across. The author used characters’ names and scenes from the books while explaining the myths and this made it easier to relate to what was being said.

This essay was interesting to read and analyze because it showed me new things about the Chronicles of Narnia series that I did not know. I did not know how many myths were told throughout each story, so it was interesting! :D