Perelandra

Perelandra was ultimately a retelling of the Genesis story from a unique and other-worldy view. It was different from most adult fiction that I read. There was relatively little action and a lot of dialogue. Personally I feel that dialogue is a strong point for Lewis. He knows how to really mold a story based on characters and how to force his audience to develop their own opinions on sensitive subjects that he covers.

On thing that Lewis discusses a lot in this book is the idea of innocence. The Green Lady is the symbolic representation of innocence and youth through the story. She naively follows the commands of Maleldril and listens despite the fact that she doesn't understand the concepts behind the command. To me this shows an almost child-like trust. I know that we have often been told to become like little children throughout the scriptures, and the Green Lady is an example of this. I realize that she is also a symbol of Eve before the fall, but I feel like in my own life her childlike qualities have more pertinence.

The concept of childhood comes up a lot in this book. The Green Lady is always commenting on how young she is, but how she is getting older with everything she learns. Youthful innocence includes not necessarily understanding or comprehending everything that God does. I think this always plays a lot into faith. Faith isn't doing something because we can see the reason behind it, but rather it is blindly following God's command even when we don't know why we are.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. At times it did get long because plot development was pretty slow. But it has a good message that is applicable and is a powerful reminder of the horrors of sin and temptation.