Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 illustrated children’s book, The Polar Express, is a fantasy detailing a young boy’s adventurous trip aboard a train to the North Pole. A combination of text and impressionistic pictures tell the account of this magic trip through a first-person account by the little boy as an adult recollecting the past. It is a story about the difficult and the reward of maintaining one’s sense of childhood innocence.
Strangely, the first of many alterations to the story made in the film adaptation was having the young protagonist start off by doubting the existence of Santa. This decision seems almost inexplicable since a foundation of the original story is the suggestion that the Polar Express on makes stops at the homes of the most fervently believers in the existence of Santa. Once the narrator boards the train, he is surprised to see it filled with passengers resembling himself. Young kids in their nightclothes are singing carols, eating candy, and drinking hot cocoa. The joyous celebration of the season taking place inside the train is a Christmas greeting card illustration come to life. Aboard the train and throughout the trip to the North Pole and back are only believers. There is no place for doubters like the narrator’s friend who has assertively told him that he will never hear the ringing of Santa’s sleigh bells because “There is no anta.” That friend will never be invited aboard the Polar Express.
The opening paragraph has the protagonist sharing the information conveyed to him by his friend that he will never hear the ringing of sleigh bells. The precise specificity of this aspect of the Santa story seems random within that opening context, but will actually prove to be the centerpiece of the entire story. It is a tale of preserving belief in the seeming impossible and eagerly opening up one’s mind to the possibly of wondrous magic and the sleigh bell becomes the central symbol by the story’s end. On his trip to the North Pole, the narrator is singled out to receive the first gift of Christmas from Santa Claus himself. The narrator intuitively understands that this position is like finding a genie capable of granting any wish. There is only one thing he wants, however, and that is one of the sleigh bells which make “a magical sound, like nothing I’d ever heard.”
The reference to the sound of the bell as magical and something almost otherworldly situates it as a symbol of believing in such seemingly impossible things. The narrator never lets his faith in the existence of Santa escape him despite the doubts of others and the lapses in logic. For this faith, he is rewarded with the bell. Which he then promptly proceeds to lose through a hole in his pants. Though heartbroken, even this great disappointment does not impact his belief. Nor does it spur any negative feelings toward Santa or the whole experience of the Polar Express. He believes and his faith has been rewarded and the fact that reward was painfully temporary does not matter.
It is almost as if the reward for his faith in Santa was actually a test of his faith. If so, then he clearly passed the test because the morning—Christmas Day—one last small box overlooked during the gift unwrapping frenzy is discovered behind the tree by his sister. It contains the bell and a personal note from Santa reminding him to get that hole in pocket repaired. He rings the bell, and his sister agrees it is the most beautiful sound she ever heard. His parents, however, do not hear the sound and assume the bell is broken.
It is not broken, of course. His sister hears the sound because she also believes. His parents do not hear the bell ring because they have outgrown their belief in Santa Claus. This circumstance also hints at the likelihood that his friend who told him he will never hear the bells once heard them himself but is no longer able because he has stopped believing. The story concludes wistfully with the boy’s friends and even his sister eventually losing the ability to hear the sound. The narrator, on the other hand, grows into an old man who can still hear the magical sound of the bell because he has retained his willingness to believe in the impossible.
Ultimately, a story about believing in a figure that one never actually sees as a living entity cannot help but be considered on one level an allegory about religious faith. Children believe in Santa Claus partially on the basis of pure faith, but also because there seems to be irrefutable evidence of existence: gifts bearing his name beneath their Christmas tree. This is analogous to adults believing in their own particular version of God despite never seeing him and instead relying upon evidence that is actually spurious rather than irrefutable.
The crux of the story is that the narrator actually does get irrefutable evidence that Santa exists. His faith is rewarded and just as quickly tested. The unspoken question the story raises is how many adults committed to their faith in their God would still refuse to give into doubt under circumstances similar to that experienced by the protagonist.
