The article "Examining Mythology in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C. S. Lewis" by Alicia D. Costello examines Mythology in C. S. Lewis's Chroncles of Narnia. The article, on the whole, discussed, not necessarily mythology in human life on Earth that made an appearance in the series, but rather, the nature of myths that C. S. Lewis created within the series itself.
In reading the essay, the first noteable feature was Ms. (or Mrs.) Costello's use of an introductory "hook" to catch the reader's attention. However, the most attention-catching feature of this hook was not, in fact, it's catchiness, so to speak, but rather, its painful rigidity. She describes the "wonder of opening a book" and manges to slip in a wardrobe reference, but still takes a couple sentences to actually begin the topic. By the time she begins actually discussing C. S. Lewis and Mythology, the feelings of reading a high school essay by a fairly inept writer are already inplace (a feeling that proofreading my own work has often brought up). This already sends the wrong message regarding the worth of Ms. (or Mrs.) Costello's essay, because it gives of the stench of B. S. that tends to accumulate around such painful, and usually clueless, writers when it comes to beginnings. As a result, Ms. Costello's credibility is already strongly damaged.
The essay predictably contained a thesis at the end of the first paragraph, that essentially just told the reader that C. S. Lewis created a working mythology for his books. This thesis is neither controversial nor insightful, and continues the feeling of answering a prompt to get a grade, which was very possibly her intent, rather than a true sharing of a unique insight amongst peers or others who would be interested in Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia on a higher thought level. This reveals to her audience of her college professor (or likely, his or her assistant, as this essay doesn't seem to come from a class of high level learning, due to the elementary nature of the essay structure) that he or she should settle in for another substandard paper.
On a more positive note, Ms. (or Mrs.) Costello's paper was fairly organized in terms of parting information; listing seven characteristics than Lewis considered vital for myths as he wrote them. The essay even proved each characteristic convincingly using C.S. Lewis's own writings and speeches, which helps improve Ms. how about we just assume she's not hitched yet, and go with Ms.) Costello's fairly minimal credibility, which is then further boosted by a conclusion that suffers none of the awkward "I must follow rules" feeling of the introduction, and prose that is intelligent, but still understandable to the non-elite intellectual types, which makes one decide that, yes, it is the T. A. grading the paper after all.
What becomes the most noteable feature of the essay, as it comes to a close, is the fairly pointless reach of the essay. Yes, it solidly proves its point: Mr. C. S. Lewis created myths of certain characteristics. Cool. Ms. Costello's readers/ TA would be glad to hear it. However, the essay retains to relevency to even the literature itself; the only insight it reveals is something plainly obvious to those reading the actual series: the Chronicles of Narnia contains (wait for it...) Mythology!
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