The Horse And His Boy Analysis

There is a scene in The Horse and His Boy, one of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia chronicles, in which the fugitive, Aravis, explains why she fled her homeland. As she begins, she switches to a style of speaking that is florid, poetic and quite captivating – for in her country, children are taught how to tell stories, just like English children are taught how to write essays. “The difference”, Lewis tells us, “is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.”It is hard to disagree with Lewis that, as a medium for communicating ideas, the traditional student essay is fundamentally unexciting. One issue is the requirement for “formal” language at all times – even though academic writers who succeed in engaging with their readers often do so by writing texts that are lively, enthusiastic and frequently irreverent, encompassing the odd anecdote, colloquialism and venture into the personal.

The standard essay structure is an even bigger problem. Its thesis statement and topic sentences act like spoilers, so the reader is afforded little suspense or surprise. And this formulaic pattern, far from making standardised marking easier, may actually undermine fair grading because bored assessors might start
This is not a trivial issue. The tyranny of being forced to declare one’s position pervades our culture, from the school debating societies to our adversarial parliamentary system, where admitting that the opposing side may have a point is political anathema. This approach is potentially anti-intellectual – for when critical thinking is applied to most issues, it becomes apparent that there are multiple viable perspectives, which can both diverge and