Great insights all around!
@Swan: I like your observation on the utilization of words in chapter 1, and I think your poem highlights the contrasts nicely.
@Ajjie: Calormen is
huge, haha! I don't think we really appreciate the enormity of it. (And considering "weeks and weeks", Shasta's impressive mounting of a horse in front of the Archenlanders makes more and more sense, come to think of it.) Good point on Bree too: he does tend toward a more sarcastic and haughty manner, but he does have rather kind moments that come out.
Islie: "A major change in a short moment" summarizes Shasta's discovery rather well.
Rennie: Nice silhouettes! (You can make your images larger in the future, if you wish. I see that we don't actually have a max size listed in our guidelines, but I think you can go up to 800 pixels without fouling things up.)
Chapter 1
What seems to be standing out to me on this reading is the amount of contrast. Granted, a lot of it is thanks to knowing the whole story, but here it is.
- The "grassy slope" to the north of his home sounds Narnian in comparison to what we've been introduced to so far. Shasta does a lot of work, he's in a poor home (both financially and relationally), the village is small and dull; in contrast, that grassy slope is fresh and green and tantalizingly free (what with the blue sky and the birds).
- "Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles." Well, Shasta will find out what it's like to be valued like that by the end!
- Something that's long intrigued me is Arsheesh saying stuff like "it pleased the gods to deprive me of sleep" and "by the admirable designs of the gods". Obviously, he's coming at it from the standpoint of a religious system with a multitude of gods, but had he referred to Another instead, he'd have been right. (Shasta will learn this later!)
- Shasta knows that a boy ought to love his father, but he's never been able to drum that up for Arsheesh. When he eventually meets his real father, he loves him pretty much right away ("I'd be just as pleased -- or very nearly -- at finding he's my father even if he wasn't a king.")
- Shasta fantasizes about being the son of a Tarkaan, or of a Tisroc, or even of a god -- a little foreshadowing on his actual identity as the son of a king.
- There's a (relatively) short distance to a life of slavery (two days' ride (though I wonder how Anradin planned to continue North either with a new slave or with some assurance that his new slave would go to his palace and stay there)) and a huge distance to a life of freedom.
Normally, I associate this Lewis quote with LB (because it's obviously a closer connection), but I think Shasta epitomizes the sentiment as well: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Shasta feels nothing for the life he's leaving behind (except some small regret that he couldn't take the donkey along). The one and only thing he's interested in is his destination, a destination that lies in the one direction he's always felt a yearning for.
Chapter 2
Guess we're continuing with the contrasts!
- Again, the landscape is Narnian in description: grass and flowers, and even the familiar sea looks altogether new from this new vantage point.
- Despite his taste of richer foods (even if they were just the travelling sort), Shasta purposely purchases rather low-end sustenance (how does one eat "a few onions" between two days, especially with only a loaf and radishes and no cooking?). I don't doubt that he might have been tempted by nicer things (other fruits and vegetables, if not meat as well), but whether by his own practicality or Bree's, he abstains.
- Considering the book's title, this isn't exactly a surprise, but it's funny how the Horses take charge of the interactions between the two parties. Shasta and Aravis really have no say in what the Horses wish to do.
- Naturally, there are all sorts of contrasts between the humans. Boy and girl, peasant and Tarkheena, Northern and Calormene, sold into slavery and contracted into marriage (though that's where the two of them have the most common ground), one going toward his family (unknowingly) and one leaving her family behind, etc..