The Advancement of Puddleglum - Robert High

The Silver Chair was another Narnia book which was jam packed with action and different storylines that spaked the reader's imagination. One thing that really sticks out to me when in comes to the Narnia books is that Lewis seems to develop characters as the story progresses. For example in the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe Edmund seems to be a very hit and miss character throughout the entire book. One has to read through the book and some of the other books to fully grasp what kind of person Edmund is.

In the book the Silver Chair, Puddleglum is introduced in the fifth chapter. When I first started to read the description of Puddleglum, I was very sceptical as I was with Edmund in the other books. I saw Puddleglum as a coward who was probably going to get the other character into some major trouble some time in the book.

Puddleglum's attitude and remarks were not like any kind of person I know or have ever met. As I kept reading throught he book I started to see the least bit of wisdom start to shine out of Puddleglums grim and boring exterior. Where as I had first thought of Puddleglum as a complete coward and failure as a living being, I started to see why he acted the way he did. Puddleglum always seemed to have a very humble attitude towards everthing and he never looked at anything as good at all. He reminded me of a person who obviously knows something good when he sees it but still calls it bad anyway. I hate it when people do that because it is such a kill joy all of the time.

The best example of wisdom or character that Puddleglum shows in The Silver Chair is in his altercation with the Witch. Near the end of the book when all of the character are put under a spell by the bad witch, Puddleglum begins to argue with her using his peculuar attitude towards everything. He shows a sign of bravery when he sticks his foot in a fire to release him of the spell. When he did this the others were able to recover and destroy the bad witch. If it wasn't for Puddleglums peculuars attitude, I don't think any of the other characters could have stood up to the witch while they were under the spell.