Essay On Out Of The Silent Planet
“Out of the Silent Planet” by C.S. Lewis
Essay 1 (Character sketch)
C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet follows the adventures of Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philogy professor at Cambridge University, who while on a walking tour of the English countryside was drugged and kidnapped by two men, Devine and Westin. He is then taken to the planet of Malacondra. Through his travels of the unknown planet, we learn that Dr. Elwin Ransom is a very intelligent man with quick response and philosophical mind.
In the first chapter of the novel, we learn that Ransom is a very well educated and intelligent man. At Cambridge he taught linguistics. This worked to his advantage, especially after escaping his captors, when he came across a civilized group …show more content…
Elwin Ransom was also a philosophical man, occasionally drifting off into deep sessions of thought. As the spacecraft entered Malacondra’s atmosphere, Ransom thought about how space is vibrant and alive, and that the planets are actually the “dark” places among the bright heavens. “How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren; he saw now that it was the womb of worlds, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the Earth with so many eyes - and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply the heavens” (18). Another example is found when Ransom's mind leaped to thoughts of Malacondrian grammar and creating a Martian-English Dictionary, even in the midst of facing possible instant death in the hands of the Hross people. “His imagination had leaped over every fear and hope and probability of his situation to follow the dazzling project of making a Malacandrian grammar. An Introduction to the Malacandrian Language - The Lunar Verb - A Concise Martian-English Dictionary.... the titles flitted through his mind” (32). This manner of analyzing and viewing the world greatly assisted Ransom in overcoming his fears. It helped him to take the time to really think about and appreciate the beauty of his
Essay 1 (Character sketch)
C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet follows the adventures of Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philogy professor at Cambridge University, who while on a walking tour of the English countryside was drugged and kidnapped by two men, Devine and Westin. He is then taken to the planet of Malacondra. Through his travels of the unknown planet, we learn that Dr. Elwin Ransom is a very intelligent man with quick response and philosophical mind.
In the first chapter of the novel, we learn that Ransom is a very well educated and intelligent man. At Cambridge he taught linguistics. This worked to his advantage, especially after escaping his captors, when he came across a civilized group …show more content…
Elwin Ransom was also a philosophical man, occasionally drifting off into deep sessions of thought. As the spacecraft entered Malacondra’s atmosphere, Ransom thought about how space is vibrant and alive, and that the planets are actually the “dark” places among the bright heavens. “How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren; he saw now that it was the womb of worlds, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the Earth with so many eyes - and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers had been wiser when they named it simply the heavens” (18). Another example is found when Ransom's mind leaped to thoughts of Malacondrian grammar and creating a Martian-English Dictionary, even in the midst of facing possible instant death in the hands of the Hross people. “His imagination had leaped over every fear and hope and probability of his situation to follow the dazzling project of making a Malacandrian grammar. An Introduction to the Malacandrian Language - The Lunar Verb - A Concise Martian-English Dictionary.... the titles flitted through his mind” (32). This manner of analyzing and viewing the world greatly assisted Ransom in overcoming his fears. It helped him to take the time to really think about and appreciate the beauty of his