The secular angel in contemporary children's literature: David ...

Roger, true fear and loneliness over the loss of her daemon, 12 and unexpected and neverbefore-felt
waves of emotion for Will. Although Lyra is twelve years old, whereas Michael in
Skellig is eleven, her adventure and circumstances move her beyond the limits of Michael’s
experiences, and force her to face a world where innocence will only hinder her view of
reality and the aims she has set: seek forgiveness from Roger, and free the world of the dead.
In the previous chapter it was argued that Skellig, the angel-like figure, was not only a part of
Michael’s transformation but played a major role in this process and enabled him, with the
help of Mina, to look beyond the ordinary and open his mind. In Pullman’s trilogy, although
the angels are highly significant to the narrative, their contribution to Lyra’s transformation
functions differently. Throughout the chapter it will become clear how or even if Lyra and
Will experience a transformation and what it means for them.
The following quotation not only defines Pullman’s trilogy, but clearly explains his
intentions in writing it as well as the side on which he stands. He is not diplomatic in the way
he expresses his viewpoint, nor does he deny the appeal that the character of the Devil had for
him when reading Milton’s epic:
Suppose that the prohibition on the knowledge of good and evil were an
expression of jealous cruelty, and the gaining of such knowledge an act of
virtue? Suppose the Fall should be celebrated and not deplored? As I played
12 Daemons are the manifestation of a person’s soul in animal form. Their nature is highly complex, as are the
rules and taboos that surround their existence. The reader is not told how the daemons spring into existence when
a human is born, but they are told that when they die they simply vanish into thin air like a spirit slowly
dissolving. In the majority of cases the daemon is of the opposite sex of its human, but the reader does come
across one man whose daemon is also male, although the reason for this is not offered. This idea of the two sexes
coexisting into one person is highly indicative of the author’s desire to create a human being that is more
balanced and complete by having both a male and a female side. Furthermore, this idea of possessing, in physical
form, both the male and female physical aspects of ourselves coincides with Blake’s ideas of the Contraries and
their reconciliation. Being aware of and living with both, we are complete, as both Blake and Pullman believe
that this is necessary. Nicholas Tucker claims that the daemon “corresponds to the psychologist Carl Jung’s idea
that all humans have a craving for an other half, also of the opposite sex which, if we could reunite with it, would
then mean that we could at last become truly whole individuals” (Tucker, 2003, 141-142).
105