The intent or purpose of this book was originally intended to be a science fiction written to meet a bet, but it ended up being the first book in a trilogy with the theme of describing how pitiful human beings are and how far from our original purpose on the earth - that is to tend it and make it plentiful, and to care for one another. C.S. Lewis was a Christian and this Christian theme permeates all of his novels. The theme of the book is that earth is seen by inhabitants of another planet as being valuable, but the humans are a problem when they think of inhabiting our planet. Oyarsa may be an angel and seems to care for the earth and sends Ransom back with a mission to make the earth better. This theme of bettering the planet Earth is the main one, plus Lewis has a chance to compare the pitiful characteristics of selfish, greedy humans with the more idealistic characters that Ransom meets on Malacandra. In addition, Lewis has the inhabitants of Malacandra agreeing to follow one leader in order to save their planet, in contrast with earthlings, who would rather fight each other to the death instead of agreeing to fight against things that would destroy us.
The subject matter, though fictional and about foreign world, is definitely political. Lewis is teaching his readers ethics in this book. C.S. Lewis' attitude and insight into dealing with another world or a foreign culture is well-intended, as he depicts the inhabitants of Malacandra as being much like humans so he can compare them with earthlings.
If I were to analysis what I found in Lewis' the Silent Planet, it would be that it is a commentary on earth's politics and the shortsightedness of mankind. Lewis finds most men to be basically greedy and selfish and those who have higher ethics to be superior...
He makes allusions to Satan and the Christian story of Jesus, who may be Oyarsa's superior in this story. In this way he can make comments on how far we have come and what the results would be if we had followed Jesus' teachings instead of, like Professor Weston, following "the Bent One" (Satan).
This book really didn't live up to my expectations of being a unique space travel fiction after having seen such science fiction epics such as Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings. It was unsatisfactory in that it seemed a little false and made up, as if Lewis was trying too hard. I found out that C.S. Lewis copied a part of the plot from H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon, in that the earthman meets a wise leader of an alien world, forming a friendship, and that the goal of the travel's goal is getting gold from the planet and bringing it to earth, but these elements are in many science fiction novels.
What C.S. Lewis hoped to accomplish was to create a science fiction novel. Evidently, he had a bet with Tolkien as to who could create the best space travel book and this was C.S. Lewis' attempt. He did create this novel and published it, along with two more on the same subject, with the same main character, but it does not appear to be his best work. It seems to be an exercise, rather than a serious final attempt at creating a novel.
Still, I can't help remembering the characters and how real they are. The book was satisfactory in that it was as if Ransom lived and this really is a dream of his, as he suspected at the end of the book, because the adventures he experienced, the planet he landed on and the characters he met were so unbelievable.
Works Cited
Lewis, C.S. Out of the Silent Planet. New York: Scribner. 1 Jun 1996.
