The Great Divorce

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is an allegory? What is the purpose of an allegorical text? What allegories are you familiar with, and where have you encountered them? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this writing style?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer prompt asks students to think critically about a specific technique in C. S. Lewis’s writing style. Students who are unfamiliar with allegorical texts may benefit from a class-generated list of allegorical texts, which may include famous works such as George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

• This article offers an overview of the allegory for reference before and during reading.
• This page from Oregon State University includes a definition of allegory, an informative video about the literary term, and examples of allegory in visual media.

2. What is the Christian concept of grace, and how does it work? How does it both explain and frustrate attempts to reconcile difficult theological questions? How does grace explain why good works are not enough for entry to Heaven? How does it reconcile the ideas of free will and divine determinism?