66 pages • 2 hours read
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
In Chapter 2, the young man goes on to rehearse his own dispiriting history. To explain the mediocrity of his life, he blames world systems—first capitalism, but then also communism when the mixed results of the world’s communist revolutions disappointed him. When a romantic heartbreak acted as the final straw in his string of disappointments, he jumped under a train and subsequently found himself in the Grey Town. He is sure that he will finally be appreciated in the place to which the bus is taking them.
When a quarrel breaks out on the bus, the resulting mayhem brings the narrator a new seat companion whom another passenger refers to as “Ikey.” The Grey Town’s occupants, Ikey says, are in a continual state of moving farther and farther away from each other. They can conjure new habitations for themselves simply by imagining them, so when they quarrel with each other, they simply imagine new housing farther away from their antagonists. Those who have been there for centuries—including some well-known names like Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Henry the Fifth—live so far away from the bus stop that it would take them lightyears to reach it if they wanted to make the trip.
Plus, gain access to 8,650+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
By C. S. Lewis
Allegories of Modern Life
View Collection
Christian Literature
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Religion & Spirituality
View Collection
Required Reading Lists
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection