Much of The Horse and His Boy is concerned with dignity. Much of Shasta's journey from his fisherman's home to Anvard involves his learning his own self-worth and earning the respect of others. For Aravis, the process is somewhat more complex.

Hers is a culture in which women are commodities, pieces of property to be indulged, mistreated, and traded at the wishes of fathers and husbands. Aravis prays to a female deity for help, apparently not realizing that if women can be traded among men, the deity has been a very ineffective protector of women. Her rebellion is motivated in part by the man her father has chosen for her—the chief advisor to the Tisroc. To Aravis, the man is a sniveling sycophant and he is too old for her. How women are treated in Calormen may seem alien to some young readers, but...