Nicole McLellan - Genesis in "The Magician's Nephew"

While reading “The Magician’s Nephew”, I couldn’t help but notice that certain parts of the book had some resemblance to the book of Genesis. It can’t be paralleled exactly with Genesis, but then again, from what we’ve learned so far about Lewis’ writing style, I don’t think he meant it to. However, I still find the resemblance interesting. For example, in the book, Digory is tempted by Jadis to eat an apple from the Tree of Youth, which would make him immortal. In Genesis 2:9, God plants two trees in the Garden of Eden; one is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the other is the tree of life. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not the tree of life. Still, the idea of being tempted to eat fruit from a tree that is forbidden in order to acquire some sort of personal and supernatural benefit can be seen in both the book of Genesis and “The Magician’s Nephew”. Also, in Genesis 1:30, as well as in Genesis 2:7, there is mention of the breath of life given by God to the living creatures, as well as to Adam. This is similar to the breath of life that Aslan gives the living creatures at the creation of Narnia. It’s also interesting to note that the book of Genesis and “The Magician’s Nephew” are both chronologically the first books in a series of books. Although relatively simple, I find these similarities intriguing, and I’m curious to see if there are more within the next six books of the series.