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About This Passage
Here Screwtape lays bare the devils' preferred death: not the honest danger of war but a sedated lie. The hammering anaphora — 'doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie' — and the long, accumulating sentence teach a young writer how repetition can build an indictment, and how the passage exposes comforting dishonesty as a spiritual weapon.
Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared. How much better for us if all humans died in costly nursing homes...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize Screwtape's fifth letter, then explain what Lewis most wants the reader to notice about how suffering can work against evil. What techniques does Screwtape rely on to argue for caution about the war?
Discussion Questions
- Screwtape distinguishes enjoying the war from using it, insisting the devils profit only by 'bringing souls to Our Father Below.' Why does Screwtape treat the immediate suffering of the war as worthless in itself, and what does this reveal about the true aim of temptation? Point to the reasoning in the letter to Wormwood.
- Screwtape catalogues the lies of the deathbed — 'doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie' — preferring them to honest deaths in war. Why does the chapter treat comforting lies told to the dying as a spiritual harm rather than a kindness? Use Screwtape's words to Wormwood to defend your reading.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A state of being deeply confused or puzzled.
Item 2
Clever-sounding but actually false or misleading.
Item 3
Strong, devoted supporters of a person or cause.
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Critical Thinking
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