Reader Response to Charlotte's Web

Lion, The Witch, And the Wardrobe What kind of world does the author present to the child in this fantasy text? Lewis' book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe creates an entirely fantastical world of strange creatures and adult people called Narnia. However, this world is still penetrated by the world of the reader, as children from the real world enter through the venue of a common wardrobe. Different characters in Narnia test the children's moral fortitude.

For example, the young boy Edmund is tempted with Turkish delight by an evil tempting female stranger, the witch of the title. Lucy learns not to judge people on appearances, as she befriends a fawn-like man as a friend. What is the author's philosophy in the text? (Christianity) These moral lessons could apply to all children, of course. But it is important to note that C.S.

Lewis approaches morality from a generalized, Christian perspective as Aslan the lion performs a symbolic, Christ-like sacrifice, giving his life for the children's lives, and then being resurrected afterwards. Initially, the children, especially Edmund are not worthy of this sacrifice, but they become worthy because of the overwhelming goodness of the lion. The lion is one of the Biblical animals used to represent Christ in traditional Christian symbolism, along with the lamb.

What psychosocial issues does the text evoke and how does these issues fit with the development of children for whom the text is age-appropriate? (Third to eight grade) The psychosocial relationships between older brothers and sisters and younger brothers and sisters, as well as inter-age siblings conflicts, as evidenced between Lucy and Edmund, are evident. Lucy and Edmund learn how to define themselves as individuals and relation to themselves, important stages in young children's development. They learn individuality as well as their own social location in a larger society.

They learn others have needs. Also, the book deals with moral learning -- forming a coherent rational explanation of the moral universe, as Edmund learns to do, from accepting the Witch's advances, and then accepting the sacrifice of Aslan's more worthy life for his own unworthy life/ Use one of the psychologist/theorist and cite a sentence to support evidence.

(Vygotsky: Scaffolding and the zone of proximal development.) It is interesting that Christianity, as viewed by Lewis, is uniquely apt to introduce the major learning theory of scaffolding from Vygotsky, despite the absence of 'normal' adults in the Narnia world, on which the grade-school age children the text is intended for can model their behavior.

The children do not enter the world 'perfectly' moral, rather they must be taught by the struggles they under go by others, underlining Vygotsky's scaffolding theory that cognitive skills and strategies are taught from one generation to the next, rather than something humans are innately born with. Lewis approaches morality from a perspective of original sin, while Vygotsky takes a secular view of the human mind as a blank slate, but both suggest that all children are impressionable and in need of adult guidance.

What do you think children will take from the text? Rather than parents and teachers to lead the children of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to think and act in ways that they would not know or discover on their own, the children of the book learn from listening and talking with more knowledgeable magical figures such as Aslan, and learn how not to behave from examples such as the witch. This underlines Vygotsky's stress that scaffolding takes place not simply through verbal instruction but also through demonstration.

Aslan demonstrates the moral value of sacrifice through his own Christ like sacrifice to the children, and eventually the children, by witnessing his example are able to engage in the actual participation in the task or activity of leadership in a realistic or hands-on context, when they eventually become kings and queens of the newly free Narnia.

Even though the children return to childlike status of subordination after the period of dwelling in the world of the wardrobe, this Narnia experience teaches them moral lessons, through experiential discovery, and through leadership and structured activities that go beyond merely listening to the words of others.

"The only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it; it must be aimed not so much at the ripe as at the ripening functions." (Vygotsky, 1978) Vygotsky states that there is always a need to gear learning at what he called a just-right level of support for children, and the entire project of Lewis' book can be seen as a 'just right' way to teach children larger moral values. Rather than gear moral lessons in a purely safe and familiar.