The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Chapters 6 and 7 focus on Eustace’s transformation into a dragon, which symbolizes his radical character growth and the Consequences of Greed and Sloth. First, not only do dragons contribute to the novel’s status as an example of the fantasy genre, but they also serve as a symbol of the very worst of human behavior. Indeed, this abstract association is confirmed when Eustace Scrubb wakes up to find that by “[s]leeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself” (49). Symbolically, his worst traits have crystallized into a “monstrous” form, and his outer appearance comes to reflects his inner greed and cruelty. However, because Eustace’s new form highlights his isolation, it also causes him to regret his previous actions and attempt to make up for them by using his dragon strength to help the crew to repair the ship. Further abstract associations can be found in the armband which he greedily stole, and which now constricts painfully around his dragon leg, suggesting that the very actions of greed and sloth have become both a prison and a punishment.

In the end, Aslan appears to Eustace and helps him shed his dragon skin in a passage strongly reminiscent of a baptism.