Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bravery
Christianity
Growing Up and Selflessness
Temptation
Summary
Analysis
Caspian, Drinian, and Reepicheep recognize the dragon’s gold armband as belonging to a famous Narnian named Lord Octesian, one of the seven lords. They fear the dragon ate Octesian, but Lucy figures out that the dragon is a human and in fact Eustace.
Once again, Lucy’s bravery is rewarded, as she proves herself even more willing than Caspian to help a stranger. This once again shows how Lucy has matured and has little left to learn, at least compared to Eustace.
Themes
For several days, everyone tries to turn Eustace back to human form with no luck. Eustace tries to keep a diary in the sand, but the water always washes it away. As a dragon, Eustace becomes more helpful to the group, hunting for meals and helping to light fires. Although the crewmembers begin to like Eustace more, everyone worries what will happen to him once it’s time to sail again.
Eustace’s attempt to keep a diary in sand represents the futility of his early efforts to regain his human form. For Eustace, regaining his human form would represent rejecting the animal urges (like greed) that his new dragon body represents.
Themes
After about six days on the island, Edmund sees a dark figure wandering around and realizes that it’s Eustace in human form again. Eustace explains how he returned to being a human. The previous night, after he fell asleep, he woke up and saw a large lion that filled him with a strange type of fear.
The lion led Eustace to a garden on top of a mountain. At the center of the garden was a well. The lion told Eustace to undress before bathing, but since Eustace didn’t have clothes on, he ended up peeling off his dragon skin, layer by layer. Eventually, the lion started helping undress him. When the dragon skin was all off, the lion threw Eustace into the well, and suddenly, Eustace realized he was a boy again. Eustace wonders if this was all a dream, but Edmund assures him it’s not. He explains that the lion was Aslan, the great leader of Narnia who lives in a distant country.
This passage of Aslan lowering Eustace into a well to make him human again has strong parallels to the Christian practice of baptism, which is also a ritual of renewal and rebirth. Eustace’s shedding of his dragon skin seems to represent his ability to let go of his greed and the other unpleasant (or sinful, in keeping with the religious allegory) aspects of his personality that his dragon form represented. Edmund’s confidence that Eustace saw the real Aslan shows that Edmund has strong faith, perhaps as a result of his previous adventures in Narnia.
Themes
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Finally, the Dawn Treader is ready to leave. Caspian leaves an inscription on a rock, taking credit for the discovery of “Dragon Island.” Eustace does not instantly become a better boy after his recent experiences, but he begins to act less selfishly. He doesn’t want Lord Octesian’s gold armband, so he throws it upward, where it gets caught on a rock and may still remain.
When Eustace tosses away the gold armband, it shows that he rejects the greed and impulsiveness that led him to take the armband in the first place. The novel acknowledges that Eustace’s transformation back into a boy doesn’t magically make him a perfect person, once again illustrating how life involves a series of struggles.
Themes
