Mindsets

895 Words2 Pages

According C.S. Lewis in Out of The Silent Planet, the human race lives on the Silent Planet. The Silent Planet, or Thulcandra, alias Earth is a prison for the bent Oyarsa that rules the world. On Thulcandra there was a man named Ransom, a philologist. This man was looking for an inn, and then a boy...and somehow through some unfortunate circumstance was kidnapped by two men: the mad scientist Weston, and his partner Devine. Eventually, he realises that these two men have brought him to Malacandra, alias Mars, as a human sacrifice. Fortunately for him, he is the type of man who would rather escape, and then die, instead of just dieing. Unfortunately for him, Weston and Devine were terrible incorrect, and the inhabitants don’t want to kill Ransom. Instead they would like to talk to them. That says something about human nature. Always thinking something’s out them. It turns out that the inhabitants are friendly, and unlike humans, are not “bent,” or wicked. After a long and lengthy discussion, interrupted by a “mislead” Weston, Ransom is eventually sent home with his fellow humans. Ransom and Weston, while they are both very fixed minded, have very different habits of mind. Ransom begins with a very closed mine, for several reasons. Weston on the other hand, is about as far from fair minded as possible.

When Ransom was brought to Malacandra, he did not have an open mind. After all, he was brought there by his rival, and a crazy, mad scientist. If that doesn’t do a number to any human, what will? Not-to-mention, all he heard the whole journey there was about how fiercely savage Malacandra inhabitants were. An odd word always haunted his dreams. That word was “sorn.” Ransom had no idea what a sorn was, but he always thought it had o...

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...le have, but don’t understand, went from a fixed mindset, to even more of a fixed mindset. The ends do not justify the means. The means may affect the end, but killing thousands of people to make the world a “better place,” or enslaving a nation, or ignoring a friend to be “popular” is only that and nothing more. That is thousands of lives wasted, a peoples trust betrayed, and a friend lost. Yet all of this was for greed. Ransom’s growth-mindset, eventually wins himself a position in a prestigious college, and a free trip to Venus in a coffin, mind you, he was still alive. Weston’s fixed mindset led to becoming a slave of the “Bent Ones”, and a free trip to Venus in a way that the eldil only know how. Not to mention, Weston’s magnificent fixed-mindset led to a free death. How odd is it to die serving a force that is not understood? But all of us do that every day.

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