During our discussion this week of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe it was mentioned that the lamp post is the first thing that the four siblings see when entering Narnia. It struck me that instead of just being a symbol of their world that was intermingled within the trees that might be listening, that it was a way for the children to know that this new world was safe.
While it might be a stark contrast with the fantastical world of magical creatures, it was obviously important to C.S. Lewis to have the protagonists see this one last sign of what they consider civilization. The question then arises: Why a lamp post?
Symbolically it might be the light that will guide their way in this strange new place where they will have to survive and fight to live. It also serves as a marker for the path that leads them to the wardrobe, doing the same thing it would do in our world.
I also wonder if it is meant to hint to them that there is in fact intelligent life. When we imagine societies that are full of higher thinkers, we think of technology, it has become a way of life for us. Even though it is not the most advanced of items that the children could have found at the beginning of their trek, it is technology that cannot be found anywhere else in Narnia.
When they see this lamp post that they are so accustomed to, they are more at ease. No matter that they meet talking animals or creatures straight out of their fairy tales, it has been implanted into their minds that there is intelligent life there, and presumably a government system of sorts along with that.
Having that in mind it explains why the children, though perhaps unaware of the influence of their guiding light, were more readily capable to grasp the civilization they had found themselves in. Had it not been for that one last symbol of the world they knew, it might have been entirely too shocking for them to cope with the magical world of Narnia.
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