Writing Tricks: Allegories
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is choked with symbolism. Almost every detail, character, and situation in the story has some deeper, theological meaning that ties back to a Biblical truth or event. And all of these little bits and pieces of truth form a larger whole: namely, the story is also an allegory. Specifically, it is an allegory about salvation, featuring sacrifice, betrayal, sin, and redemption with Edmund, Lucy, and Aslan playing the roles of key figures in the Bible’s salvation story (the prodigal son, the faithful daughter, and Jesus).
Symbolism and allegory operate in mostly the same way by using fictional elements, characters, or plot points to obscure or represent something else. They are both incredibly useful for all kinds of Christian storytelling regardless of the message type (covert or overt), format, genre, audience, or any other kind of category. However, where symbolism tends to be confined to just one specific piece of the story, an allegory stretches across the whole of the narrative. It is the story’s message and “bigger picture”, woven throughout the pages or frames of the fiction.
Allegories are one of the most powerful messaging tools that exist for the Christian storyteller, since they are not confined to a small portion of the story. They allow the storyteller to have a cohesive message and, most importantly, the time and space needed to present it to the audience. Symbolism is often over in a sentence or scene, allegory stretches out across chapters and runtimes. In the game of exposure time, allegory tends to beat symbolism hands down. Typically, the best way to expose someone to a new idea so that they retain it is by making them spend time in that idea. Allegories inherently allow for this kind of messaging structure because they take up so much time in the narrative.
Part of the reason for this is that is because allegories allow for the development of a theological, moral, or philosophical idea. Over the entire narrative, the storyteller can “walk” the audience through the concept, viewing different perspectives, offering up arguments and counterarguments, and building up to the story’s ultimate message. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe does this with its message of salvation. The story doesn’t dive directly into salvation, it paves the road to it with need, sin, good, evil, despair, faith, justice, and wrath. It paints a picture of why Aslan’s sacrifice is necessary to save Edmund and the rest of the children long before the actual event happens.
An important thing to note is that Christian allegories do not have to come directly from an event in the Bible — such as Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection — but can cover less specific topics. For another Lewis example, Perelandra is an allegory on spiritual warfare and wrestling with temptation. While it does utilize a recreation of Eden — the narrative is framed around the question “what if the Fall never occurred?” — putting the focus of the allegory more on the concept of spiritual warfare, rather than the sin of man as depicted in Genesis. A Christian allegory should likely be based in a Scriptural concept or truth in some way. There is room for other, adjacent Christian philosophies to become allegories, but like with all Christian storytelling, the most fruitful message is one based in Scripture.
