The Pilgrim's Regress

The brook in The Pilgrim’s Regress provides a physical representation of the boundary between life and death. To cross it is to pass on to the next life. In many folkloric and mythological traditions, a source of running water (for example, the River Styx) divides the world of the living from the afterlife. Early in Lewis’s narrative, after John’s uncle George is evicted, he crosses the brook and disappears, never to be seen again. George’s fate haunts John throughout the story. The anxiety he feels about it reflects the universal fear of death and the uncertainty of what lies beyond. When John returns to Puritania in the novel’s conclusion and finds his childhood home abandoned, he realizes that his parents crossed the brook while he was on his journey. Despite the grief this revelation brings him, John feels a sense of hope. As Slikisteinsauga suggests, crossing the brook leads to a new beginning and a reunion with those who have gone before. Eventually, John also crosses the brook at the end of the story. Slikisteinsauga’s assurance that he will cross over “for the last time” suggests that this crossing is not just a passage from life to death but a culmination of his spiritual pilgrimage (232), emphasizing the novel’s thematic interest in The Search for Spiritual Truth. The journey through life, with all its trials and tribulations, Lewis suggests, is preparation for this final act of surrender and transformation. As such, the brook is the final test and the ultimate passage that every soul must undertake.

On John’s quest to find the Island, the Grand Canyon represents the seemingly insurmountable divide between his current state of being and his ultimate spiritual goal. The origin story of the canyon that Mother Kirk tells John and Vertue—a modified version of the biblical account of Adam and Eve’s exile from the Garden of Eden—positions the canyon as a physical manifestation of the Christian doctrine of original sin. Lewis reinforces this connection with its alternate name, Peccatum Adae, or “Sin of Adam.” For John, the chasm is not just a physical barrier but an existential gap, symbolizing the separation between man and his true home: the Island, Lewis’s symbol for heaven and divine truth. Mother Kirk, who represents the Christian Church, claims that accepting her help is the only way for John to cross the chasm. John refuses her help at first, still mired in his initial doubts and mistrust of the religious framework with which he was raised. His attempts to navigate the chasm himself prove daunting and treacherous, emphasizing the disorientation and sense of loss that often accompanies The Search for Spiritual Truth. As John progresses through the canyon, he’s forced to confront his fears and doubts regarding the Landlord that catalyzed his search for deeper truth and meaning in the first place.