Death is one of the few things in life we ​​can be absolutely certain of. But the way we think about death as human beings, as rational agents, as mortal beings, changes over time and circumstances. Once considered a distant consideration, it becomes vital and consuming after a grim diagnosis or after the passage of a few decades. Many characters, plots, and themes throughout literature explore the means by which humans come to understand and accept (or refuse to accept) the inevitability of death through our development. This developing understanding is perhaps best encapsulated in coming-of-age stories, more specifically, the teenage hero's journey. By analyzing the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis and Harry Potter by JK Rowling, we are able to witness through the characters and their research the struggle of the adolescent mind with the concept of mortality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Psychologically, metaphorically, and thematically, the teenage heroes of these series are forced to face and ultimately defeat death. Themes of renewal and redemption in both religious and secular contexts characterize both works, and the fantasy settings of both the wizarding world and the world of Narnia provide conditions for discussing and defining mortality that would not be available in a contemporary Bildungsroman. Thus, adolescent fantasy provides a particularly interesting perspective on the development of an understanding of mortality in the adolescent mind. Furthermore, the comparisons with death that appear in these works appear to be aimed at providing comfort and enlightenment to young adolescent audiences through themes of resilience, renewal, and hope. The monomyth of the hero's journey, first outlined by Joseph Campbell, has been redefined and applied variably over the past few decades. In our discussion of the journeys into Narnia and Harry Potter, we will focus on what is classically called “the approach to the innermost cave” and “the ordeal.” In comparative literature scholar David Leeming's short story, The Hero's Journey, he defines it more explicitly as the descent into hell. “In the descent into hell the hero finds himself an explorer in the province of death itself. The hero, as man's agent, faces in depth what man himself fears so much. The hero is our hope to overcome death and understand its meaning." This "decent" probably occurs in every volume of each of these series, but here we will focus on the sufferings of the final works of each series, as the descents that occur there thematically encompass those that occur earlier in the series. Last battle, the young human heroes (in this case, Eustace and Jill) face death both literally and metaphorically in the stable episode. Like the wardrobe in Lewis's first published novel, the stable in The Last Battle serves as a portal to another, larger world, but unlike the wardrobe, the stable is not so much an initial threshold as a final threshold. “The Stable Door becomes a metaphor for death”, explains the writer and theologian Paul Ford, “on this side of the door death is terrifying, black, unknown; but on the other side is the glory of Aslan's country." In fact, during the passage of the heroes in Aslan's land it is discovered that they actually died in a train accident in the "real" world. However, before the heroes reach this understanding, they are forced to face the fear of death and the unknown in a final, futile battle with the Calormenes. The wirestheological in Lewis's earlier works make it easier for teenage heroes to face this unknown; they already know the concept of other worlds and the value of faith. The description of their final battle is almost lighthearted, almost comforting: “In a way it wasn't quite as bad as you might think. When you use all your muscles to the fullest… you don't have much time to feel scared or sad” (The Last Battle 148). Jill and Eustace's confrontation with death is portrayed more as a departure into another adventure, rather than a terrifying conclusion. “All their life in this world and all their adventures had been but the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning the first chapter of the Great Story which no one on earth has read” (The Last Battle 211). , although less theological, the theme appears in the Harry Potter books. Our hero Harry often receives direct advice on matters of unavoidable mortality, usually from Albus Dumbledore. In addition to serving as a guide to Harry, Dumbledore plays a special role in shaping Harry's developing understanding and ultimate acceptance of death. Just as Aslan prepares the heroes of Narnia for their final encounter with death, Dumbledore carefully and almost systematically prepares Harry throughout the series. In the first novel he tells Harry: “To a well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure” (The Philosopher's Stone 240). Dumbledore reappears again in Harry's most crucial brush with death in the final installment of the series, The Deathly Hallows. Equivalent to the Narnians' encounter with the stable, Harry also experiences a sort of afterlife in the chapter titled "King's Cross", in which he arrives in a heavenly version of King's Cross Station after Voldemort places the killing curse on him. As in the stable door metaphor, the fear of death in Harry's case once again proves more problematic than his outcomes. Dumbledore foreshadows the ordeal that Harry faces in his final confrontation with death in the penultimate novel with more words of wisdom: “It is the unknown that we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more” (The Half-Blood Prince 566 ). When Harry discovers that he must sacrifice himself to defeat Voldemort, he is terrified to say the least, but when he arrives in the otherworldly King's Cross, where it is "warm, bright and peaceful" (Deathly Hallows 609), his fears regarding death are assuaged and develops a greater concern for the trials of life. “Adolescent fantasy, therefore, to some extent, seems to negotiate with the power of death as the ultimate authority,” argues Vandana Saxena in her novel The Subversive Harry Potter. “Success lies in accepting continuity, in seeing death as the 'next great adventure' in the series of events.” In addition to being structured as heroes' journeys with clear descents into the "underworld," these teen novels are further facilitated in exploring mortality through their fictional contexts. Both the wizarding world and the world of Narnia have the ability to play with time and physical existence in ways that make death seem potentially impermanent and/or reversible. In Narnia, the Pevens live multiple lives by traveling to Narnia and then returning to “our world.” In Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione uses the time turner to nearly double the length of each school day. In The Silver Chair, Jill and Eustace witness Aslan's resurrection of King Caspian to live or choose to become a ghost” (Saxena 67). This ability of the world of fantasy to subvert adult notions of death,.