#thechroniclesofnarnia
Did you notice that both Polly and Digory and Eustace and Jill started their adventures when the last of them was crying?
How they react differently:
"The magician’s nephew":
“At any rate I do wash my face,” said Polly, “Which is what you need to do; especially after - ” and then she stopped. She had been going to say “After you’ve been blubbing,” but she thought that wouldn’t be polite.
“Alright, I have then,” said Digory in a much louder voice, like a boy who was so miserable that he didn’t care who knew he had been crying. “And so would you,” he went on, “if you’d lived all your life in the country and had a pony, and a river at the bottom of the garden, and then been brought to live in a beastly Hole like this.”
London isn’t a Hole,“ said Polly indignantly. But the boy was too wound up to take any notice of her, and he went on “And if your father was away in India - and you had to come and live with an Aunt and an Uncle who’s mad (who would like that?) - and if the reason was that they were looking after your Mother - and if your Mother was ill and was going to - going to - die.” Then his face went the wrong sort of shape as it does if you’re trying to keep back your tears.
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry,” said Polly humbly. And then, because she hardly knew what to say, and also to turn Digory’s mind to cheerful subjects, she asked:
“Is Mr Ketterley really mad?”
"The Silver chair":
“And she hadn’t nearly finished her cry when a boy came round the corner of the gym whistling, with his hands in his pockets. He nearly ran into her.
“Can’t you look where you’re going?” said Jill Pole.
“All right,” said the boy, “you needn’t start - ” and then he noticed her face. “I say, Pole,” he said, “what’s up?”
They react this way not because Eustace is more tactful than Polly, but because he knows Jill and her situation, and Polly sees Digory for the first time.
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