C. S.

Lewis’s Peralandra Book report Nathaniel Compton 3/2/11

C. S Lewis wrote a book titled Peralandra. In this book C. S. Lewis depicts the journey

of a man from planet Earth to the planet Venus. He shows us multiple ideas and numerous

themes to comprehend. The book focuses on the main character Ransom, and on the Green Lady

that he meets while on the planet. His old nemesis, Weston, is re-introduced and changes any

perceptions that the reader may have had about his intellectual prowess. The book takes the

reader on many twists and turns to new heights that they have never experienced even in his first

work of this trilogy, The Silent Planet. It has a lot of themes that are all important to notice.

It was written in such a way that when the reader would read a chapter or two they

would have to reflect on the deeper meaning of the character’s actions, the plot of the story, and

the settings into which the characters were placed. Peralandra clearly describes the events that

Ransom goes through but also looks at the facts of life in a different way than most would. For

example, when Ransom was sent to the planet of Peralandra, he had to strip off his clothes and

enter the coffin-like transportation system as if he were the first human being. He also realized

that the planet, despite its outer appearance, was not like earth at all and was completely different

from the planet Malacandra and earth. He was definitely shows first hand, the importance of not

judging an object by its appearance when he was engulfed in the “mountain-shaped” waves. He

at first thought that they were simply mountains, but he soon realized that they were in fact a

large wave approaching him at incredible speeds.

Then when he thought all things were settling down, he found that the ground was much

different from the grounds of Earth and of Malacandra. The land of Peralandra was like walking

on a pillow or sponge. From the first few moments of the book, Lewis has definitely changed

the situation that ransom was placed into. He no longer had absolutes that he was used to; he
 C. S. Lewis’s Peralandra Book report Nathaniel Compton 3/2/11

now had to work with completely new surroundings and had to live on an island that he had only

been on for a couple minutes. Lewis does a very good job, showing the transformation from

scholar to well-rounded man that he puts ransom through. Ransom has been to Malacandra and

has had his share of troubles and now those troubles seem to be nothing in comparison to the un-

man and the battle between himself and the un-man’s words. Throughout the book ransom is

battered around physically and mentally by the un-man, he tries to convince the Green lady that

the un-man is not wise or old, but that he is young and foolish and that he is saying untrue

statements about the way things are. One of the themes I saw in Peralandra was that the un-man

could be like Satan and the woman and the king would be like Adam and Eve. Though the king

is not seen till much later in the book, the story is thrown forward at a fast pace. When ransom

realizes that he is not going to be able to stop the un-man, he tries to show the woman his dark

side but because the un-man is selectively choosing to use wisdom he doesn’t allow Ransom to

convince the green lady of anything.

At the end of the book, ransom does convince the green lady that the un-man was bad and

then ransom is sent back to the earth, I thought this part was interesting because in the Adam and

Eve story Eve and Adam both disobeyed the one rule, but the king and queen both don’t disobey

the rule and so they are able to have a different outcome from Adam and Eve. Lewis placed a lot

of similarities between Adam, Eve, the king, and the queen. At one point the king, and queen are

together and the king talks with Ransom about how they are planning to live from then on. The

story ends as ransom returns home, and tells his friends what has transpired, he shows that he has

become a much more agile and more intelligent man than he ever has been before.