Growing

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there are two different forms of travel taking place. The first is Lucy and Edmund, the two of them have been to Narnia before and ravish about it. Eustace recalls them talking about it in the past; In the beginning of this novel, they stare at a picture that looks like a Narnian ship wishing that they could once again go to Narnia. Edmund asks Lucky, “whether it doesn’t make things worse, looking at a Narnian ship when you can’t get there” (Lewis, 5). The two of them have experience a world outside of English, and enjoyed it. They dream about the day that they can go back. On the other hand, Eustace has never been to Narnia. He refers to it as a “game” that Lucy and Edmund has always played. The picture comes to life and drags Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace in. Lucy and Edmund are thrilled and fall right into character with the familiar faces of Narnia, which Eustace struggles to fit in and enjoy the different world because he was forced there rather than wanting to be taken there like his two cousins.

In the beginning, Eustace not only insults the Chief Mouse but he also gets sick and retires to bed immediately after boarding the ship. This reminds me of my first semester at Loyola, my first time away from home. Coming to Loyola was a hard transition especially after always having my own bedroom at home. Every person has their own routine and way of living; you’ll especially find differences in people who are from another state. Still to this day, I find myself more like my friends from my hometown rather than like my friends from school. In my first shared bedroom, though, I’d always catch myself watching the other people wondering why they were doing what they were doing. It’s almost like watching somebody from a foreign country interact in your country; it’s hard not to notice the different routines and patterns that they have picked up that is not a part of the American customs. The sickness that Eustace got when he first boarded the ship immediately reminded me of the home sickness that I would feel. Although I had new friends all around me and was continuously busy with my work, I couldn’t help but feel lonely only because there were not familiar, comforting faces around me.

            Eustace began to transition throughout the novel, though, just as I have began to transition at Loyola. Reepicheep, the Chief Mouse, decides that he wants to sit at the table that the three lords have been asleep at for seven years until sunrise because it is a great adventure. Edmund, Caspian, Lucy, “And then Eustace volunteered also. This was very brave of him because never having read of such things or even heard of them till he joined the Dawn Treader made it worse for him than for the others” (Lewis, 212). Rather than questioning the reasoning behind why Reepicheep decided to stay at the table like Eustace would have done in the past, he decided to join in on the adventure with him. Eustace has overcome his judgment of Reepicheep being a human-like mouse, and has accepted the norm of Narnia. At Loyola, I eventually found myself started to become accustomed to other people’s routines, and even began picking up on some of them myself. Both Eustace’s experiences and my own have shown that once you let the door open to the world outside of your own, then you will grow as a person and become acquire a higher strength of knowledge .