The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Out of all the Chronicle of Narnia books, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader has to be my favorite. I am not sure if it is because I am a sailor at heart, or if I simply resonate with the character of Eustace Clarence Scrubb, but I have since my childhood dearly loved this story. As I have re-read these books this summer, I have been surprised as to how many parts of the books I had forgotten. But not this one. I remembered every chapter as it occurred and it is obvious that this story impacted me as a 5th grader.

I love the first lines of this classic work, "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and masters (teachers) called him Scrubb. I can't tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none." This character has been so intriguing to me as a child because I could relate to the personality he portrayed. He was a nuisance and sought to annoy people for his amusement. Being a little brother, as I am, I could see myself in him, although I told myself I could not be as bad as Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and I had a lot nicer name.

But throughout the story we see this young man change. It is a slow change and he, in some ways, never really conquers all of his faults, but everyone could tell by the end of the story that he was a better young man that when they started. And that gave me hope to change as well. Eustace had changed so much that by the end of the story he was jumping into the battle with a sea serpent and, although he could not use a sword in any functional way, he tried to fight. He tried, which is something that he was never really known for doing before.

What enabled this transformation of Eustace Clarence? I think that the main picture we see of this transformation comes through the process of becoming undragoned. You see Eustace had found a treasure on Dragon Island and watched the last dragon die. He thought he could have all the gold and proceeded to put a gold ring around his arm in the triumph of his "victory". But he fell asleep in the dragon cave and when he awoke, he was a dragon. This was the first time he had a self-reflection of his true nature. You could say that he saw on the outside what had always been on the inside. Those things that others see in us but for some reason we have trouble seeing ourselves. He returned to the crew and they were horrified but it was Lucy that figured out that the dragon was not there to hurt them, but that he was Eustace.

As the story goes on we see that Eustace began to help the crew in his dragon form and did many things to get the ship back in order. He wanted to change and started to act differently because of that desire. But then he encountered Aslan, the Christ figure. He was told by Aslan to undragon himself. So Eustace tried to tear the scales from himself. He was unsuccessful, although he was commanded to do it and tried several times. Then Aslan said to him, "I must do it". And the Lion tore at him with his great claws to rip away the dragon scales. Eustace was never quite the same after this experience with Aslan.

For the Christian, the message is quite clear. The dragon scales represent our sinful nature and we are commanded to undragon ourselves, although we are not capable to fully accomplish it. Christ Himself must do the work of sanctification in the hearts of believers.