Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis, is about a philologist named Ransom. Forced to board a globe-shaped spaceship by two men known as Weston and Devine, Ransom must survive on a planet called Malacandra, known by humans as Mars. On this planet, there are three different kinds of species: the sorns (the intellectuals), the hrossa (the poets), and the pfiltriggi (the mechanics).

During his quest for survival, Ransom meets several of these strange and interesting characters, including one named Hyoi. Towards the center of the book, Hyoi gives Ransom a discourse on his view of time saying that our past, present, and future are all connected. Later on in the story, Weston contradicts this view and says that time moves in a linear motion with no connection. These two different beliefs create one of the major conflicts of the story.

Hyoi sees time as one gigantic moment. He says that a moment in a person’s past is not left behind but it is part of that person’s present and in turn is part of his/her future. For example, a conversation between two mere acquaintances might not mean anything to them at the present time, but ten years in the future it might have a lasting impact on those two people.

This is what Hyoi means when he says in his speech that an event in a person’s past is never truly finished. It lives in the person and continues to grow, even when the event seems to be complete. An event in time only really affects a person after the event takes place. Hyoi’s idea is the very essence of life because it emphasizes the oneness and constant circle of life.

Hyoi’s idea of time as one huge moment fits in perfectly with the setting of Out of the Silent Planet. In the galaxy, the planets are unified and they are not isolated from one another. This is how Hyoi’s theme is carried on throughout the setting: time and space are both one. Also in Malacandra there are three species, but they make up one world. They live in harmony together, and there is no one race that is dominant over the other. They are all one. This is how Hyoi’s time discourse is related to the setting of Malacandra.

Weston thinks of time differently than Hyoi does. He thinks of time as simply linear movement in which past, present, and future are all three separate stages of time. His idea of time emphasizes movement and fragmentation; he believes that life is this constant march and past, present, and future are separate stages in that march. Weston, being a scientist, is obsessed with the idea of constant motion and this idea causes him too see time in a flawed way, in stages rather than one gigantic event. Weston’s view of time is the exact opposite of how time really works.

In conclusion, the discourses that Hyoi and Weston give in Out of the Silent Planet are two completely different views. Hyoi believes that past, present, and future are all connected, and they are all one big moment. He articulates that an event that happens in a person’s past is never really over but it continues to grow until a lasting effect comes out of it. On the other hand, Weston believes that time is this constant motion that moves in fragments. To him, past, present, and future are separate stages of time have nothing to do we each other.

We know that this belief is wrong and we must look at life the way Hyoi does because his view captures the real meaning of life.