The Literary Canon as an Ideological Construction (Essay Example)

The literary canon is a list of the most important, influential, or definitive works and authors in art, literature, music, and philosophy. One author that is not often mentioned in this list is the British writer and lay theologian C.S Lewis. One of Lewis’s most famous novels, The Screwtape Letters is set in World War II where a novice devil receives letters from his experienced “Uncle” on the art of tempting a single man living with his mother. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, viewed through the historical and psychological lens, allows readers to cope with anxiety and contains timeless truths that exposes worldly lies; therefore, it should be in the modern literary canon.

The historical lens analyzes how World War II may have influenced the novel and defines how the Letters have and will help readers cope from external stress. The religious works of C.S Lewis, especially The Screwtape Letters, were influential during World War II where people looked for faith in times of despair and hopelessness. These questions were sought in religions such as Christianity in the 1940s. The Screwtape Letters satisfied the “need for God which Lewis's religious works filled” (Day-Camp 5). The war made people direct “a powerful beam into all the odd corners of human life, revealing the issues of life and spiritual death” (Walsh 22). While The Screwtape Letters seems strictly religious, Lewis symbolizes the constant internal battles humans face, regardless if they are religious or not, the “road to Hell [a] gradual one” (Lewis 24). In any time period, people walk the road “without sudden turns, … milestones, [and] signposts” of not noticing how they attain stress gradually (Lewis 24). To combat this phenomenon people engage in religion which helps people to deal with “the face of mortal threats, suffering and existential uncertainty” (Henrich et al. 1). The trend of people in Uganda and Sierra Leone becoming religious after recent civil conflicts prove the point that religion helps people living in uncertainty and brokenness (Henrich et al.). The Screwtape Letters allows people to examine their mental health through the point of view of Screwtape who in the novel is the chief stressor and addresses the issue by engaging in a religion.

A prominent issue could be that The Screwtape Letters is too religious to be in the modern literary canon where logic and reasoning is favored. This claim is disproved by the psychological lens that analyzes how worldly ideals represented by Screwtape affects human interaction within societies and helps the readers understand the immorality of those perspectives. Lewis actually analyzes social ideals or the “temptations” of the devil and uses Christianity to strongly symbolize the selfish psychological nature of people. The common attitude in modern society is that “[m]y good is my good and your good is yours” or  that every person can do what they want to become more successful to live the “American dream” and compete with others to get their paradise (Lewis 35). Screwtape competes in the society of the devils where the powerful take advantage of the weak. This is seen at the end of the novel when Screwtap threatens Wormwood that he will consume him for his good. This selfish behavior of devils to do whatever to put themselves in front makes the readers reflect if this defines their own behaviors. Ironically, when people do anything to get ahead, they “[seem] to enhance their power” but in reality diminish their “power” because the consequence of their actions offsets their success (Anderson et al. 5). Lewis is not just a religious writer that wrote about the devil in hell but uses the setting to explain negative impacts of worldly perspective through the lens of Screwtape and teaches people of the timeless truth that success isn’t determined by selfishness. The Screwtape Letter impacts the readers by strengthening their morality by exposing the flaws in modern ideas.  

Even though the book was published in 1942, it is the legacy of C. S. Lewis was one of the “most effective and influential advocates for Christian faith this century” (Downing as cited by Day-Camp 4). The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis should be in the modern literary canon in the historical perspective as people still can utilize the book to cope from stress from day to day and understand the psychology behind flaws of modern social behavior. The Letters is not a novel that only gives the reader perspective of the devil but challenges the audience to look within their mental health and morality.