Week 3: Chapter 2 — The Journey and Arrival

1.When the bus passengers arrive in the Valley of the Shadow of Life, they find that the grass is so solid it hurts their insubstantial feet, and a single leaf is too heavy for them to lift. Lewis reverses our ordinary expectations: Heaven is the solid, real place, and Hell is the thin, shadowy one. How does this reversal challenge the way you typically think about the spiritual and the material?

2.The narrator and the other Ghosts look pale, transparent, and almost invisible in the bright morning light of Heaven. They can barely cast a shadow. What does Lewis mean to communicate about the state of souls who have chosen themselves over God?

3.Lewis describes the landscape of Heaven's borderlands as overwhelmingly bright, almost painfully so — the kind of light that makes everything crisp and undeniable. Why might the experience of God's reality feel painful or overwhelming to souls who have spent their existence avoiding it?