Puzzle - Robert High

We are all put on this earth to fulfill one of God's many purposes. I don't see myself as being put on this earth as one of the smart ones. I don't believe thought that God requires us to be smart or gifted in order to make an impact on the world. In the book The Last Battle Puzzle is a character that some would argue as not the smartest character. In the beginning of the book he is tricked by his so called ape friend to wear a pelt of a Lion that they found in a river to resemble the return of Aslan.

Throughout the entire book the ape tricks puzzle into convincing a good part of the charcters in the world to believe that Puzzle is Aslan. By hiding puzzle away from the people and only showing him on rare occasions the ape is able to make the other animals and people do whatever he wants because "Aslan" said so.

Some people would question the character of Puzzle in this book. It seems that he is very weak minded and weak will because he allows the ape to trick and convince him to do things so easily. Some people would say that puzzle deserves to be punished for allowing the ape to use him in such a horrible way. I believe however that Puzzle was only a small part of the overal plan that was put in place for Narnia. Even though he was used as a sort of "anti-christ" he was not aware of what he was doing at the time. He did know that he didn't enjoy what the ape was doing to him and eventually he managed to escape and team up with the good guys.

In a way, I saw it as a kind of repentance when Puzzle turned to the good guys for help. He knew that he had been duped by the enemy and was sorry for it. He didn't mean to cause any harm to the other animals or people of Narnia even though harm in happed due to his actions. Sadly, Puzzle needed to do what he did in order to fulfill what was inevitable for Narnia. In relating this to our world, there have been people who were used to bring forth bad things, such as Judas Iscariot in his betrayal of Jesus. I think that since prophecy needed to be fulfilled it was inevitable that someone needed to be chosen to betray Jesus. However, I think that Judas had a choice very similar to Puzzle's choice in the last battle after he betrayed Jesus. Instead of repenting of what he did and returning to the good side as did puzzle, he decided to end his own life.