Abby Dorman

Dr. Root
C.S. Lewis
November 4, 2016

The Great Divorce Reflection

The Great Divorce tells what C.S. Lewis believes to be the story

of heaven, hell, and how people end up there. The story is told

through the eyes of a narrator who travels on a bus from heaven to hell

and learns about heaven through spirits that he meets there. The sinful

attitudes of humanity are magnified in the people he travelled there

with. I think that many of the different people represent different

attitudes that prevent people from entering heaven. They held onto

pride, intellectual ability, grudges, and lust when all they had to do was

let go and find eternal joy in heaven.

I think C.S. Lewis did a good job of depicting the trivialness of the

things that we place our trust in on earth. In contrast, the things of

heaven are so much bigger and better than we can even comprehend.

As much as we focus on our own efforts and accomplishments, they

will mean nothing when we finally behold the glory of God. This doesnt

diminish our value as humans, but it should change the motives behind

our actions. If we truly believed that nothing but serving God and

others would matter in eternity, we would focus a lot less on our own

glory.

Through this book, Lewis seems to be saying that those who

choose to see beyond the temporal and let go of pride and selfishness
will enjoy heaven. For those who dont, he says, there is always

something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. (p. 71)