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The Concrete Embodiment of Imagination

BySarah Dixon Young

What C.S. Lewis and Louisa May Alcott Have in Common (Besides their Birthday)

November 29th marks the 127th birthday of C.S. Lewis and the 193rd birthday of Louisa May Alcott. Their classic works, The Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women, The Pilgrim’s Regress, and Eight Cousins, and many more, occupy prominent places on beloved bookshelves across the globe.  They have captured our imaginations and helped us grasp the deeper truths and meaning that we want to apply to our daily lives and impart to our children.

How did they do it? 

They read good books. 

The Influence of Bunyan

John Bunyan published his allegorical work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, in 1678, 190 years before Alcott published Little Women and 255 years before C. S. Lewis published The Pilgrim’s Regress. Bunyan’s influence is undeniable in both classic works. 

Alcott structured Little Women similarly to The Pilgrim’s Progress, even going so far as stating her theme in words spoken by Marmee, the mother of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: 

Do you remember how you used to play Pilgrim’s Progress when you were little things? Nothing delighted you more than to have me tie my piece bags on your backs for burdens, give you hats and sticks and rolls of paper, and let you travel through the house from the cellar, which was the City of Destruction, up, up, to the housetop, where you had all the lovely things you could collect to make a Celestial City.

Marmee takes the shared memory of pretending something they read together and applies it to their current situation and struggles:

“Our burdens are here, our road is before us, and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true Celestial City. Now, my little pilgrims, suppose you begin again, not in play, but in earnest, and see how far on you can get before Father comes home.”

In directing her characters to take the imagination sparked by Bunyan’s classic work and apply it to difficulties in their daily lives, Alcott shows her own interaction with The Pilgrim’s Progress. What’s more, she gives us a hint about good reading, good writing, and good living.

C. S. Lewis wrote his The Pilgrim’s Regress after only two years of being a Christian and adopted Bunyan’s allegorical structure for his own tale. In another work, Mere Christianity, Lewis wrote, “One of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education in itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world.”

Bunyan’s classic work has never been out of print and has sold more copies than any other work besides the Bible, but Bunyan was a humble tinker who, after his conversion to Christianity, became a preacher. Prison was his seminary, where he had only the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs for his instruction. However, his literary style and contribution live on in works like Little Women and The Pilgrim’s Regress. 

In his preface to The Pilgrim’s Regress, Lewis wrote this about allegory: “In fact, all good allegory exists not to hide but to reveal; to make the inner world more palpable by giving it an (imagined) concrete embodiment… for when allegory is at its best, it approaches myth, which must be grasped with the imagination, not the intellect.”

This is exactly what Bunyan achieved for his readers, including Lewis and Alcott. It is imagination that we can apply to real, daily life. This is what we want to equip our children to do: take their play, their reading, their education, and their experiences from the place of imagination to apply them to daily living. 

Imagination Applied

They may read about Jo’s sacrifice in cutting her hair to help pay for Marmee’s train ticket to nurse Father, who has been injured in the Civil War—an imaginary circumstance. Then, they may apply that same self-sacrifice when they are faced with a decision to share with their sibling. 

They may read about John’s experiences with the Spirit of the Age, who imprisons him, and the woman Reason who comes to slay the giant, both with three riddles and with her sword. Then, they may recognize their own encounters with the Spirit of the Age in song, on the big screen, or in their classroom—but they may also recognize that Reason is a welcome sight. 

Lewis wrote, “Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.” 

Bunyan used his imagination to convey meaning. One of his characters, the Interpreter, helps the protagonist, Christian, understand allegorical truths and the tenets of the Christian faith. In their own ways, Lewis and Alcott took the meaning that Bunyan imparted to them and constructed their own imaginary characters and situations to convey truths about character, truth, goodness, and beauty. They have extended the Interpreter’s reach to new works, new readers, and a new era.

On November 29th, readers can celebrate imagination becoming meaning. Concepts like courage, moral excellence, self-sacrifice, and perseverance leap off the page into our lived experiences. From Bunyan to Alcott and later to Lewis, truth has never wavered but instead multiplied to our great delight and edification. We can share that delight with our children, our students, and others as we live out the concrete embodiment of imagination. 

Sarah Dixon Young
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