Even the most plausible people can make a difference

“Either something or nothing must depend on individual choices. And if something, who could set bounds to it?”
At this point of the book, Ransom has figured out that it is he who must stand against the Un-man. He does not believe that he can have such an impact on the world until he discovers that all he has to do is not let the Un-man off without a fight. He does not have to win the fight; he just has to put up a good effort. The best thing is that he doesn’t have to put up a physical fight (which is a good thing). He just has to make sure that the Un-man does not get into his mind and undermine everything that he believes.
It’s hard to believe that the decisions we make can have such an effect on the world around us, but every decision we make (whether it’s to cross the street or to tell someone the truth) has some sort of effect on the world. Ransom says that the course of a river may be changed because of a stone, and “he was that stone at this horrible moment which had become the centre of the whole universe.” If he fights the Un-man and loses, well, at least he died trying. If he lets the Un-man off without trying to stop him, that’s a different story. He will be a coward if he does not fight back, and what is worse, it will almost certainly be his fault if the Un-man is able to complete his task of causing the Green Lady to fall. Though the Un-man has completed this task before (in the case of Eve), there was no one then to save her. She made a decision to buy into whatever the Devil told her, and because she did not listen to her higher judgment (she had to have had a voice telling her not to do it, right?) she caused the world to fall. Ransom must stick to his beliefs in Maleldil and not let the Un-man’s attempts to destroy Perelandra get the better of him. Though it may seem crazy that all he has to do is stand up for Maleldil in order to save a world, one man can make such a great difference.