The Screwtape Letters - Chapter 2

Study guide for 4th – 6th Grade

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Copywork

About This Passage

These three sentences name the chapter's deepest idea: every real beginning passes from glad dreaming into hard work. The repeated 'It occurs when...' and the balanced examples of Greek and marriage teach a young writer how parallel sentences build a pattern and then state its meaning.

It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learni...

Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.

Discussion Questions

Narration Prompt

In your own words, tell the story of Screwtape's second letter. What are the most important moves in his plan for the new convert, and how do you know they are the ones that matter most?

Discussion Questions

  1. Screwtape calls the ordinary parish church 'one of our great allies,' even though he admits the true Church is 'terrible as an army with banners.' Why is the shabby, half-finished church more useful to Screwtape than the glorious one? Point to what he says the man can and cannot see.
  2. The man feels he has done the Enemy a favour by converting, and he looks down on his 'smug' neighbours. What is wrong with feeling proud of becoming good? Use evidence from Screwtape's letter to Wormwood to defend your answer.

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide

Vocabulary Builder

Item 1

A short stay in a place.

Item 2

The set words and order used in a church service.

Item 3

Having to do with pictures or images in the mind.

+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide

Critical Thinking

+ 5 more questions in the complete study guide

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