Just before the conclusion of the story, North Wind identifies herself to Diamond: "I don't think I am just what you imagine me to be. I have to shape myself various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true. People call me by terrible names and think they know all about me. But they don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance, sometimes Ruin--and they have another name for me that they think the most terrible of all." "Another name" is, of course, Death.
Why hasn't MacDonald told the child listener this sooner? Isn't this the central idea of the the story? Yes, considered from an abstract point of view. But there is another understanding that from a spiritual standpoint is much more important: the understanding of the heart. It is this MacDonald wants to instill within the child's thinking. As much as possible, he wants to keep a purely abstract grasp, with all its negative emotional connotations, at bay.
As we have remarked before, he has many Biblical passages in mind, uppermost among them James 1:2: ". . . whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. . . ." and Romans 5:2: ". . . we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. . . ." Like Paul, MacDonald is wanted to shape positively the reader/listeners attitudes toward trials and suffering and linking them closely to hope. The imagination is proving to be a powerful tool for his purposes.
Diamond contrasts with other characters, mainly Nanny and his father, in this regard. Admirable as both are in many characteristics, neither is thinking in terms of hope. Nanny is a plucky little materialist who undergoes extreme difficulty and hardship, but she ridicules faith and hope, and therefore must be taught through severe trial: her illness. Joseph is an honest, hard working man, doing his best to fulfill his role as husband and father, but because he is a grumbler, lacking an active faith and hope, he also must endure trial. His trial comes in the form of Ruby, the horse that Mr. Raymond deposits with him in order to discern what type of man he really is. Raymond's purpose is God-like: "He had met Diamond's father and liked him, but he had decided to test them all before he did anything as good as he would like to do for them" (Chapter 27).
The above passage in which North wind identifies herself is in the context of an extended conversation on the nature and value of dreams, and their relation to our waking life. This is a concern that surfaces often in MacDonald's writings. Diamond's concerns that his dreams have no reality beyond that of his own dreaming mind echo those MacDonald himself has felt. But he consistently comes to the conclusion expressed here by North Wind: "The people who think lies and do lies are very likely to dream lies. But the people who love what is true will surely now and then dream true things. But it depends too on whether the dreams are homegrown, or whether the seed of them is blown over somebody else's garden wall" (306). The validity of one's dreams is directly related to one's spiritual stature before God, and is very much an individual affair. Because Diamond is what he is, she assures him: "I don't think you could dream anything that didn't have something real like it somewhere" (300). But she also reminds him that he couldn't remember the song he heard the angels sing. The final reality of heaven is quite beyond what eye has seen, ear heard, or has entered into the heart of anyone (I Cor. 2:9).
The narrator muses concerning Diamond: "It seemed to me, somehow, as though little Diamond held the secret of life, and that he was himself what he was so ready to consider the lowest living thing--an angel of God with something special to say or do" (287). Clues to the nature of this secret of life lie in the many truths of the heart that are expressed throughout the text. The poem "Where did you come from, baby dear?" offers one: every individual life is a gift from God and expresses--in terms of what it has the potential to become--a thought of God (267, 68). Some of the others are: The only true possession is the possession of love (269). Everyone loves something; life consists in loving rightly (277; shades of Augustine and Dante here!). The greatest wisdom in life is foolishness to all who do no possess it (279). Many others from the text could be added.
The fairy tale is the best vehicle for conveying such truths, truths that are at the same time simple, profound, and so applicable to life at its core. This is why the Inklings all celebrate such stories. Chesterton in Orthodoxy expresses the core idea: "My first and last philosophy, that which I believe in with unbroken certainty, I learnt in the nursery. . . . The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now are the things called fairy tales. They seem to me to be the entirely reasonable things. They are not fantasies: compared with them other things are fantastic. . . . Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense" ("The Ethics of Elfland")." At the Back of the North Wind" is by any measure an excellent example of such a story.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
At the Back of the North Wind: 4th session
In Chapter 15, Diamond's family find themselves in new living quarters, "the mews." The mews is that area behind the London homes, consisting of an alleyway with adjacent stables and living quarters for the hostlers' families. Here Diamond's father is reduced to the humbler position of London cabman. He is, however, gladdened by the opportunity to buy is beloved horse, Diamond, for use now on the London streets.
That Diamond the boy shares the same name with the horse is emphasized at the very beginning of the story, and their association plays a prominent role in the story throughout. What is the point? In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, the black horse--Diamond's color--signifies economic hardship and famine, realities that bear upon the family, but there must be a greater significance then that.
Further imagery teases. Association with either the horse or North Wind occupies a great portion of Diamond's life. He maintains a healthy attitude towards both and is most comfortable when seated on the back of either one or the other. The relationship to each is, however, quite different. North Wind is the mysterious Other to whom obedience, submission, and trust are essential. On the other hand, he must learn to make the horse obedient and submissive to him. He learns to kindly control the horse and care for it, harnessing its energies to fulfill his purposes. In short, he must care for the horse, whereas North Wind takes care of him, and it is crucial to the quality of his life that he maintain a healthy attitude towards each. Were he not to have utter faith in North Wind, or were he to be cruel or neglectful of the horse, his life would be plunged into uncertainty, misery, and gloom.
Just as North Wind signifies the unseen spiritual world, governing events over which we can exercise no human control, Diamond the horse signifies the natural world, of which Diamond the boy is very much a part (hence the identity of names), and which he must learn to steward and properly control for his own betterment. Together, the two encompass all of experience outside of human relationships.
MacDonald's basic point is that both realms are sacramental; that is, they are channels offering grace. How one is related to each determines the nature and quality of one's life. Everything in life is fraught with potential blessing. One's attitudes determine how and to what extent grace is realized. Life means us well; our attitudes are crucial. I think this is one of the reasons Christ had in mind when he remarked: "The eye is the lamp of the body: So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness" (Matt. 6:22, 23). How one sees the world shapes the nature of one's experience in it.
Diamond's exemplary grasp of this truth makes him himself an instrument of sacramental grace: he wants to befriend people and help them. This is why so much of the fairy tale is devoted to Diamond's life on earth after he as visited "the back of the North Wind."
Early on in the story, when North Wind and Diamond observe the beleaguered Nanny sweeping her London street crossing, Diamond wants her to be helped, and when North Wind tells him she cannot, but he could, he leaves her to befriend Nanny himself. Why cannot North Wind help Nanny? She is a tough-spirited little girl with a good heart, and is living in the most deplorable of conditions. But she lacks the proper attitude towards the unseen spiritual world; she lacks faith. When Diamond tries to tell her of his experiences, she dismisses them utterly as foolishness.
North Wind asks Diamond, "Do you think if you don't see it happen then nothing is being done?" In the course of the story, Nanny takes seriously ill. Diamond and Mr. Raymond, who also is ready and eager to help those in need, get her into a children's hospital where, through their instrumentality and Nanny's dream (which is sent by North Wind), she is set on a course that issues in a much more satisfactory life.
MacDonald also teases reader by using red imagery. In the hospital, Nanny is given a ruby ring whose color fascinates her and triggers her dream, a dream which has an intriguing quantity of red imagery in it. The dream takes her through disobedience to repentance and initiates her into a different course in life, one in which she is taken into Diamond's home and is trained by his mother. Red is also the color of Ruby, the horse that through Mr. Raymond is given to Diamond's father as a test of his integrity. The red horse in Revelation Chapter 6 signifies misery, strife, and war. In MacDonald's thinking all such has a great potential for grace. Mr. Raymond announces the principle in his fairy story "Little Daylight": "I never knew of any interference by a wicked fairy that did not turn out to be a good thing in the end."
The child who is receiving MacDonald's story is learning that people in adversity need the help of other more fortunate people. But in every aspect of life, attitudes of love and concern are essential.
That Diamond the boy shares the same name with the horse is emphasized at the very beginning of the story, and their association plays a prominent role in the story throughout. What is the point? In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, the black horse--Diamond's color--signifies economic hardship and famine, realities that bear upon the family, but there must be a greater significance then that.
Further imagery teases. Association with either the horse or North Wind occupies a great portion of Diamond's life. He maintains a healthy attitude towards both and is most comfortable when seated on the back of either one or the other. The relationship to each is, however, quite different. North Wind is the mysterious Other to whom obedience, submission, and trust are essential. On the other hand, he must learn to make the horse obedient and submissive to him. He learns to kindly control the horse and care for it, harnessing its energies to fulfill his purposes. In short, he must care for the horse, whereas North Wind takes care of him, and it is crucial to the quality of his life that he maintain a healthy attitude towards each. Were he not to have utter faith in North Wind, or were he to be cruel or neglectful of the horse, his life would be plunged into uncertainty, misery, and gloom.
Just as North Wind signifies the unseen spiritual world, governing events over which we can exercise no human control, Diamond the horse signifies the natural world, of which Diamond the boy is very much a part (hence the identity of names), and which he must learn to steward and properly control for his own betterment. Together, the two encompass all of experience outside of human relationships.
MacDonald's basic point is that both realms are sacramental; that is, they are channels offering grace. How one is related to each determines the nature and quality of one's life. Everything in life is fraught with potential blessing. One's attitudes determine how and to what extent grace is realized. Life means us well; our attitudes are crucial. I think this is one of the reasons Christ had in mind when he remarked: "The eye is the lamp of the body: So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness" (Matt. 6:22, 23). How one sees the world shapes the nature of one's experience in it.
Diamond's exemplary grasp of this truth makes him himself an instrument of sacramental grace: he wants to befriend people and help them. This is why so much of the fairy tale is devoted to Diamond's life on earth after he as visited "the back of the North Wind."
Early on in the story, when North Wind and Diamond observe the beleaguered Nanny sweeping her London street crossing, Diamond wants her to be helped, and when North Wind tells him she cannot, but he could, he leaves her to befriend Nanny himself. Why cannot North Wind help Nanny? She is a tough-spirited little girl with a good heart, and is living in the most deplorable of conditions. But she lacks the proper attitude towards the unseen spiritual world; she lacks faith. When Diamond tries to tell her of his experiences, she dismisses them utterly as foolishness.
North Wind asks Diamond, "Do you think if you don't see it happen then nothing is being done?" In the course of the story, Nanny takes seriously ill. Diamond and Mr. Raymond, who also is ready and eager to help those in need, get her into a children's hospital where, through their instrumentality and Nanny's dream (which is sent by North Wind), she is set on a course that issues in a much more satisfactory life.
MacDonald also teases reader by using red imagery. In the hospital, Nanny is given a ruby ring whose color fascinates her and triggers her dream, a dream which has an intriguing quantity of red imagery in it. The dream takes her through disobedience to repentance and initiates her into a different course in life, one in which she is taken into Diamond's home and is trained by his mother. Red is also the color of Ruby, the horse that through Mr. Raymond is given to Diamond's father as a test of his integrity. The red horse in Revelation Chapter 6 signifies misery, strife, and war. In MacDonald's thinking all such has a great potential for grace. Mr. Raymond announces the principle in his fairy story "Little Daylight": "I never knew of any interference by a wicked fairy that did not turn out to be a good thing in the end."
The child who is receiving MacDonald's story is learning that people in adversity need the help of other more fortunate people. But in every aspect of life, attitudes of love and concern are essential.
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