The Chronicles of Narnia Don’t Deserve a Spot On 21st Century Bookshelves

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The Chronicles of Narnia Doesn’t Deserve a Spot On 21st Century Bookshelves

The beloved children’s series has aged like milk

Sean Myers
9 min readFeb 23, 2024

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Classic literature passes the test of time by continuing to speak good, powerful lessons on important issues that do not go away. In The Odyssey, we are captured by the overwhelming desire to get home. In Hamlet, we are torn by indecision. For Whom the Bell Tolls tells us of the plight of the rebel

There may be elements of the story that no longer apply to today’s world or that no longer fit in it. Odysseus had slaves, women couldn’t act in Elizabethan England, and Hemingway was a misogynist. But these things can be cut away or treated as useful, largely innocuous pieces of historical information. They could even be details that draw more meaning from the text and inform us of why our society is the way it is.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, though, these flaws in the books’ message are not harmless. If the Christian metaphor and the 1950s-style sexism and racism aren’t enough to strip the title of “classic literature” from The Chronicles, then the virulent Islamophobia in this children’s series should be. Worse, the anti-Muslim attitude cannot be cut from the series

It isthe series