Really, this a terrible question it presents the
asker of it as a person who does not care about anyone else, the dwarves,
Harold and Alberta and the rest of the people on that trainwreck.
After all,
those people should be important as well, but, the person asking Is Susan Lost
cares nothing about those other people and only cares about a person who did
not die and therefore the story does not tell us the ending of. We do not know
the ending of Susan.
All we know is that right now she thinks her siblings are
being rather silly. But, earlier in the Chronicles of Narnia we say statements
like ‘‘Once a King or Queen of Narnia always a king or queen of Narnia’’, which
means to me if you just forget about something that does not make it any less
true.
Let’s look at what the seven friends of Narnia said about Susan.
“My
sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of
Narnia.”“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and
talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, ‘What wonderful
memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we
used to play when we were children.’”
"Oh, Susan! She's interested in nothing
nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly
sight too keen on being grown-up." –Jill Pole
"Grown-up, indeed. I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."- Polly
Now, let’s look at what Lewis mentioned about her
later:
Lewis wrote to a young reader in 1957: “The books
don’t tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the
end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But
there’s plenty of time for her to mend and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s
country in the end . . . in her own way.”
In his Companion to
Narnia, Paul F. Ford writes at the end of the entry for Susan
Pevensie that "Susan's is one of the most important Unfinished
Tales of The Chronicles of Narnia", but adds in Footnote 1 for that entry:
‘‘This is
not to say, as some critics have maintained, that she is lost forever ... It is
a mistake to think that Susan was killed in the railway accident at the end
of The Last Battle and that she has forever fallen from grace.
It is to be assumed, rather, that as a woman of twenty-one who has just lost
her entire family in a terrible crash, she will have much to work through; in
the process, she might change to become truly the gentle person she has the
potential for being.’’
Someone on
Narniaweb said, ‘‘He never said Susan was permanently barred from Narnia, just
that – at the time of LB – she was preoccupied with more shallow things to the
neglect of the important things.’’
Which to me is exactly the point. But, also,
wow, no one is thinking about Harold and Alberta who lost their son and the
Pevensies save Susan in a car accident. They were also too preoccupied about
being healthy to think about Christ. But, surely they saw what a different child Eustace was
once he came back from Narnia.
According to the books, when Eustace returns
home after his adventures, his mother thinks he has become tiresome and
commonplace, blaming the change on the influence of "those Pevensie children" — though everyone else thinks
he has become a much better person. But, surely after the death of their son
and the Pevensies, both Harold and Alberta would go over to the house where
Susan was living and would mourn over their deaths.
So, the question should not
be Is Susan Lost, but rather How long is it going to take Susan to come back to
realizing what is right? Susan was not the only person who lost people in that
train accident and likely, some boy lost a family member in that accident as
well. And then when she comes to mourn and put flowers at the accident she
meets the young man who also came to do the same thing……Oh, sorry, a fan
fiction in the works….
But, really when I think of Susan all I can think about
is how her story is ripe for fan fiction.
And this is the basis of Lewis’ beliefs
about fan fiction in relation to Narnia. Writing to a young fan, C.S Lewis
states, “I am delighted to hear that you liked the Narnian books. There is a
map at the end of some of them in some editions. But why not do one yourself!
And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian history?
I’ve left you plenty of hints – especially where Lucy and the Unicorn are
talking...I feel I have done all I can!"(104).
In this way, Lewis is
saying I have written books to encourage fan fiction and creativity. So, if you
are so worried about Susan being lost, why don’t you write your own fan fiction
already?
Just to get you started, here’s an idea HPofNARNIA
and Fireberry suggested on Narniaweb:
Susan has
someone arrive at her door.
"Hey, I’m sorry to say this to you but- your
family is dead"
Susan: *Eyes wide open* "What!"
"There was a terrible Accident. your Parents,
your Brothers and Sister and your Cousin were in a train, it crashed and killed
them, along with your Cousin’s friend, the Professor you stayed with and his
friend. They’re all dead. I’m sorry."
Susan: *Gasp*
That’s all I can think of.
… And the next day, Susan goes to the scene of the
railway accident to lay down a huge wreath of flowers … and by the side of the
tracks, she notices something … green and yellow rings? She approaches and
reaches down to pick up a yellow ring. and … TO BE CONTINUED!
So, there’s your jumpstart, write away.
Or since Netflix now owns Narnia, here's your ending to The Last Battle.
