Comparing C. S. Lewis Behavior With Nature

“To find out what is natural, we must study specimens which retain their nature and not those which have been occupied” (Aristotle, politics I,V,5)

In the early 20th century, when both Lewis and Tolkien got started with their teaching careers at Oxford University, they embarked on a “conquest of nature”, which was a trend in the industrialised west. According to the Christian beliefs, the humans misbehaviour with nature would carry horrid spiritual significance and they believed that the sins of man against Nature would not be forgiven and that nature will take revenge, leading to severe consequences. It is not likely to believe that C.S.Lewis would be happy or upset about the fact that he is today considered to be an ecocritical writer.
He was very intrigued by donkeys as a specie and references to the same occur numerous times in Lewis’ writings, another example of which is the gullible and innocent Puzzle in The Last Battle. It seems as if Lewis is trying to establish a sense of common ground between the sufferings of human and non-human, and if everything that is non-human is nature, then he is trying to bring a middle ground between Man and Nature. In his speaking of mice and donkeys, there seems to exist an attempt at drawing a relation between these animals and poets and soldiers. The sufferings of Animals became such part of his thought process, that Lewis’ works about the same concerns can be chronologically listed. After publishing The Ass in 1919, he wrote Peralandra , in 1943 which discussed a demonic figure that opened up frog like creatures and let them live to suffer which evoked the practice of vivisection. This was followed by his essay published in 1947 that discussed his hatred towards experiments on animals. Lewis sees a connection between animal suffering and that of humans and is able to draw a sense of disregard towards the non-human life. Animal Pain was the price he paid for the progress of humanity and mentions his basis behind the objection to the common practice, that was vivisection. He also establishes the relation between the creator and the creatures, in this case,
Lewis in his works discusses “dis-enchantment” and “de-sanctification” of nature which then leads to a discussion on exploitation of philosophical materialism, which further leads to ecological care and renewal. He also goes to the extent of saying that theists have more chances of being concerned about the world for they see it as a reflection of heaven and are capable of being ecologically sensitive while materialists may not be so considerate given their narcissism. It becomes important to know the degree to which the ecological view of the author is metaphorical or real in terms of human existence for he seems to be in love with the world in order to seek the eternal