Funnily enough, I'm in the same boat with the Narnia stories. The first encounter I had with them was a theatrical production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when I was about seven, and I'd read all the novels by the time I was twelve, so the Christian metaphors just weren't obvious or relevant to me.
If Narnia's Christian metaphors went beyond Lion Jesus' resurrection, I knew nothing of it. Then again, I wasn't really paying attention when I read books other than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
I think they are pretty obvious Christian allegory, but Lewis wrote them to be entertaining as well, and deliberately kept the religious Aesops fairly muted. Generally speaking, Aslan is Jesus (The lion is a pretty long established heraldric symbol for a king) and once you get that you can extrapolate the rest.
I think I was into adulthood before I realized that books had themes. The dangers of getting almost no literature in high school.
Staring At My Own Grave
I read the books right when I was discovering religion and going through my Evangelical-phase as a teenager. (I'm sorry. — Makes Chiyo-chan face — I'm really sorry). I readily noticed all sorts of Christian themes told in the symbolism. I was recognizing and relating everything or almost everything to that which I was learning for the first time in my adopted church and was reading in the Bible. I discovered the books right at the "right time" to SEE EVERYTHING, I guess.
However, they are very symbolous... as in, if you aren't studying the Christian religion, have little familiarity with it, or only know it through cultural osmosis without ever having read any New Testament or a familiarity with weird animal symbols in Christendom, I can see it easily going over one's head.
Pretty difficult to say, blatantly crucify a lion, after all... body structure and whatnot.
In which I attempt to be a writer.
I didn't notice that in the Narnia books, either, when I was younger. Or at least not all of it. Some of the Christian symbiology was really over the top.
I recommend Ana Mardoll's writings on the Narnia series, if you want to have those themes pointed out to you, but be warned: It might ruin your fun in re-reading.
Not sure if this is the best place to discuss this, but while i haven\'t read the Chronicles of Narnia books per se (i do remember skimming through the first one), i have seen at least five visual adaptations, and i gotta say; i never really noticed any of the religious themes in these stories, even though i\'m told that they were basically what made them what they were.
All i saw when i watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a story about 4 kids fighting an evil villain in an epic battle and saving an entire magical kingdom filled with magical creatures. I honestly did not see anything religious in the premise. The same goes for Star Wars; I honestly didn\'t see any political overtones to the story.
Has anyone else ever been in a situation like this before?