Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis

From the novel’s prologue, which centers on the great lions at the Bronx Zoo, to Aslan of The Narnia Chronicles, lions symbolize The Power of Conversion. Linking the lions at the Bronx Zoo to herself, Joy suggests that she and the lions live in cages. Rather than the bars of the zoo’s enclosure, Joy faces the imprisonment of her atheist beliefs and her marriage to an unsuitable and unfaithful partner. Hemmed in by the strictures of her domestic existence and her lack of faith, Joy feels drawn to the caged lion in the Prologue, and she reaches out physically to it, regardless of the danger. Touching these lions, Joy sees that “capture had damaged their souls” (3).

Merging her love for Jack with her spiritual journey, Joy proclaims at the beginning of the novel that “it was the Great Lion who brought us together” (1)—a reference to the Christian God. As the creator of Narnia and the thread that links The Chronicles of Narnia together, Aslan—the Lion that Jack creates—also represents the Christian God who pursues Joy before she converts. Regardless of the danger these lions present to her, she makes contact. Likewise, conversion threatens Joy’s identity and safety, pushing her out of her secure beliefs and removing the masks she wears to the world.