The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

One of the recurring themes in The Chronicles of Narnia series is Aslan’s role as a godly figure who created, rules over, and will eventually destroy Narnia. Aslan is an all-seeing, all-powerful Christ figure who acts as a spiritual guide for the protagonists throughout their many adventures. Indeed, he often sets them on quests, comes to their aid in dire situations, and bestows rewards and punishment for moral and evil actions, respectively. Significantly, the narrative often implies that the characters’ fates are predetermined by Aslan’s divine will. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for instance, the protagonists are guided by Visions of Aslan, who symbolically blesses their journey through these profound spiritual experiences.

Reepicheep is the character who most powerfully exemplifies the theme of fate. He volunteers to accompany the king on his voyage because of a prophetic verse he heard as a child: “Where sky and water meet, / Where the waves grow sweet, / Doubt not, Reepicheep, / To find all you seek, / There is the utter East” (10-11). At the end of the book, when the mouse finally reaches Aslan’s country, the narrator remarks that “everything now felt as if it had been fated or had happened before” (140).