Foreshadowing

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.”

Weston's speech extolling the value of sacrificing lives for the advancement of humanity foreshadows his attempt to take over the planet of Malacandra in order to provide a new planet for humanity to conquer and colonize.