Suffering

Student Choice,

December 2, 2016

What is the role of suffering and anxiety? What part does it play as we continue on our journey and what part does it play in Lewis’ stories? According to existentialist, Jean Paul Sartre, anxiety is the knowledge that your freedom to act has implications for how others should act as well and that is a heavy burden. Lewis writes, in Problem of Pain, that suffering is part of what reminds us that this world is not permanent but rather that we should always be moving towards something else. In Lewis’ books, suffering seems to be what leads to a spiritual shift. Eustace, in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader gets turned into a dragon. After suffering for days as a dragon, he reaches a pool where he sees Aslan. Aslan asks him to remove his skin before getting into the pull. He tries and tries to do it himself and yet he is unable to. Finally, Aslan says that he must remove the skin for him. So, he takes his claw and digs down to the very core of Eustace is and tears away the dragon skin. It was painful and lead to this incredible vulnerability. But this pain was part of what changed Eustace forever. Here, he recognized his need for someone higher and form there he could never go back. Similarly, Ransom’s struggle on the planet of Malacandra, kidnapping in all, was part of what changed him forever. I think suffering is essential to the journey and essential for a connection with God.