Let the Metaphorical Imagery Commence!
As is usually the case with science fiction, this novel is filled with metaphorical imagery. In fact, the first paragraph has no sooner begun than the metaphors start coming, setting the stage of the stylistic device that will come to dominate the narrative:
“A violent yellow sunset was pouring through a rift in the clouds to westward, but straight ahead over the hills the sky was the color of dark slate. Every tree and blade of grass was dripping, and the road shone like a river.”
"The love of knowledge is a kind of madness."
This is a work of science fiction, but situated with the context of metaphysics, religion and the nature of God. C.S. Lewis was a writer who always injected Christian themes, symbols and conceptual underpinnings to his famous fantasy stories and he was no different when it came to the fantasy of worlds beyond wardrobes. The assertion here is about not being afraid of the unknown which can be interpreted strictly in terms of faith as well as science.
Malacandra
When it comes to describing unearthly worlds in a way that makes sense to earthlings, the simile is the writer’s best friend. Lewis demonstrates this reliance upon making a comparison to something that is known in order to create an image of something that is strange and foreign when the landscape of the alien world is first seen by the protagonist:
“The purple mass looked for a moment like a plump of organ-pipes, then like a stack of rolls of cloth set up on end, then like a forest of gigantic umbrellas blown inside out.”
Foreshadowing or Philosophizing?
The trip to the planet is one that makes the protagonist question the very idea of space as dark and foreboding. He is amazed as just how bright the universe actually is. But as journey heads down through the atmosphere of Malacandra, things change. Is this literal foreshadowing or merely philosophical pondering?
“Suddenly the lights of the Universe seemed to be turned down. As if some demon had rubbed the heaven’s face with a dirty sponge, the splendor in which they had lived for so long blenched to a pallid, cheerless and pitiable gray.”
Fear and Darkness
Just as the love the knowledge can be a kind madness, so is fear too often the cause of a bestial reaction arising from a primal level. Fear is the great motivator for actions that foreign cultures view with disdain. It is a staple of the genre and darkness is a metaphorical image few writers can resist:
“When first you came here, I sent for you, meaning you nothing but honor. The darkness in your mind filled you with fear. Because you thought I meant evil to you, you went as a beast goes against a beast of some other kind, and snared this Ransom."
