Myth Became Fact and The Horse and His Boy- Ryan Webb

In Myth Became Fact, Lewis is responding to a charge by Corineus that modern Christians are not Christians at all. Corineus suggests that Christians should "cut the chord," because "everything would be much easier if you [Christians] would free your thought from this vestigial mythology." Lewis sarcastically responds this way, "To be sure: far easier. Life would be far easier for the mother of an invalid child if she put it into an Institution and adopted someone else's healthy baby instead....'Would not conversation be much more rational than dancing?' said Jane Austen's Miss Bingley.'Much more rational,' replied Mr Bingley,'but much less like a ball." We understand here that Corineus and Lewis have a different perspective on the value of life. Lewis argument goes beyond the validity of Corineus' statements. While Corineus cannot fathom why Christians do not take the easier route, Lewis refuses to acknowledge that difficulty plays a role in life at all. The point is this, life is determined not by the degree of difficulty, but by purpose. Whether a life is full of challenge, suffering, pain, accomplishment, success, or happiness is arbitrary. A life of purpose, however, disregards the sacrifice of challenge, suffering, and pain and understands accomplishment, success, and happiness as ideals to believe in rather than strive for.
In the Horse and His Boy, we meet Shasta, a young boy who experienced what all would call a difficult life. We are introduced to Shasta as a servant of Arsheesh, a poor Calormen fisherman. Shasta was treating poorly, beaten, and almost sold before he ran away. As a runaway he was ridiculed, judged, chased by lions, and disrespected. However, throughout the entire story, we get the sense that Shasta is living a life of purpose, and his life was building in him a deep sense of confidence and love. By the end of the story, it is not Bree, the Narnian war horse, or Aravis the Princess, or even the magical hermit who saved Narnia, it was Shasta. The greatest example of pushing through difficulty must be when Shasta had to run and warn King Lune. The book says, "Shasta's heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed that cruelty and unfairness of the demand." It would have been easier to give up and refuse the demand to run. Why didn't Shasta just "cut the chord," it would have been much easier if he would have "freed his mind," of such a task? It is because Shasta's life was a life of purpose, a life of difficulty for sure, but a life of purpose indeed.