British Literature and Composition

1 May 2012

Till We Have FacesBook Two

Journal Prompt

“Mask is not for hiding, it is for freeing what is inside.  When it is not your face but this screen that the world sees, the essence of you will come forth.” (Dee)

How has Orual come to the realization that she is Ungit in light of this quote? (Not: the speaker of the quote in the story could not speak English very well; the author of the story is quite literate and a phenomenal writer)

Food for Thought

Orual says of Ungit, “I have said she had no

face; but that meant she had a thousand

faces.” How could this same concept be

applied to Orual herself? What about Redival

or Psyche? Or you?

Chapter OneWhy does Ansit say that the Queen knows little of Bardia?

Why is it so ironic that Tarin said that Redival was the lonely outcast?

Has your opinion changed as to who had the best of Bardia?

Who loved Bardia more?

Who is in the right, Orual or Ansit?

Ansit reached the point Orual did, where she has nothing to lose and has decided to make her case against the one who has wronged her. Is this action condonable? Is it right? Have you ever reached this point? Which one has a stronger argument? How does Ansit getting a response change the nature of the argument, rather than Orual making her case against 'mute' gods?

“It’s the bitter truth as I’d ever tasted, but I drank it.” (C.S. 258)

Do you think that Orual is ready to accept that Bardia was on his death bed and she couldn’t do anything about it?

What truths in your life are bitterest to swallow?

Chapter TwoHow is the statue of Ungit like the idols created in the Old Testament?

How is having a shapeless god more comforting?

Orual looked into the mirror and saw the face of Ugnit. What is your interpretation of this dream?

Orual finally discovers that the veil isn’t a means to be unknown but something that reveals and defines her. She decides to go barefaced because no one had seen her face. Where in our life do we use the things behind our veil as a disguise?

What is the point of Orual’s conversation with Arnom in which they contemplate the reasons for the stories about Ungit and other myths?

What aspects of Christianity are like those of Ungit, if any? (271)

Can God be like the statue of Aphrodite? If so, to what people?

What does Lewis reveal about the common man and the difference between deep vs. light religions?

What does Orual’s vision about traveling into the earth with her father symbolize?

Who is Ungit?

Chapter ThreeIs it easier to yell at a faceless god?

“We’d rather they were ours and dead than yours and immortal.” What are some examples of this type of thinking, not only in our own lives, but in the Bible as well?

When Orual says 'chew on the strange bread,' what is different now than her previous vision?

How does Orual finally achieve her goals? And is it anything like the way she expected/ hoped she would?

How does the silence answer Orual?

What is the result of Orual’s attempt at self-reformation (on page 282)?Consider Romans 7 15-25:

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I

want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to

do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it,

but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me,

that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I

cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do

not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it

is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with

me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at

work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a

prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am!

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to

God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b

] a slave to the law of sin.

Has Orual really been helping Psyche in her tasks all along?

How are we to God like Orual was to the gods? (297)

How does Lewis address possessive love in Orual’s claim that “The girl was mine” (291-292)?

How was Orual’s testimony to the judge her “real voice” (292)?

Chapter Four

In her vision,

Orual

announced her

complaint. But

the answer to

the Complaint

was the

Complaint itself.

How so?

Now what is the significance of Psyche calling Orual Maia?

What does the difficulty of Psyche’s challenges imply about our perspective (as Orual)?

“Are the gods not just?” “Oh no, child. What would become of us if they were? (Lewis 297)” Explain.

Orual has to be tried by the gods. Why?

Was the trial in essence a final judgment?

What were the three REAL trials faced by Psyche ---and all of us ? (302-303)

The gods couldn’t speak to Orual until she unveiled herself and showed her face. (Till We Have Faces!) Why do you think this is?

Why is it significant that Arnom is a priest of Aphrodite at the end of the book?

“How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” What does this

quote mean?

"You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"