"The Magician's Nephew"- Reading Response

In the first book of the classic Chronicles of Narnia, "The Magician's Nephew" by C.S. Lewis, the main characters Polly and Digory meet an evil and pretentious queen named Jadis. While reading the book, I found myself resisting this character so much that I nearly stopped reading. I think this was because even though she was cruel and full of herself and broke the law, nobody in the story tried to put her in jail or make a real effort to stop her because she was a beautiful woman.

I found myself resisting Queen Jadis because she was cruel, often for no reason. For example, she destroyed her own world and claimed it didn't matter because her people's only purpose was to serve her. Then, when Digory and Polly took her to Earth and then Narnia, she tried to take over both worlds. Jadis also uses violent tactics to get people to listen to her. When she met Digory's stubborn Aunt Letty, she tried to blast her when she was told not to use strong language in the house. When Jadis discovered that her blasting powers didn't work on earth, she threw Aunt Letty against the wall without hesitation.

I also resisted Jadis because she was pretentious and full of herself. For instance, when she went to earth she expected everyone to listen to her and bow down to her, and she called everyone "slave" or "dog" or "minion". She also only talked to or listened to people who could be useful to her. She refused to even look at Polly because she didn't know that she had access to magic as well as Digory. Jadis also did stupid things to try and "assert her dominance" like standing on top of cabs and telling people she was the queen of the world.

Despite everything else Jadis did, the thing that annoyed me most about her was that nobody (on Earth especially) made a huge effort to stop her. This was because she was, to use the words of Uncle Andrew, a "dem fine woman". What everyone on earth did mostly was just make fun of her and ogle at her, not acknowledge or try to prevent her vicious ways.