Introduction
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed (1974) are useful resources that demonstrate the utopian models and breaking of limits by individuals. The paper aims at identifying the concepts of individuality in the settings of radically different individuals in the society. It demonstrates the differences in culture and interactions that exist between racially different individuals as well as their similarities. Both texts are utopian in that they give a critical review of the powerful ideologies that exist between human, environments, politics among others. The essay focuses on two characters that help in pushing the plot forward as well as bringing out the different themes that are displayed in the novels. From The Dispossessed, the focus is on character Shevek and from The Left Hand of Darkness; the focus is on Genly Ai. Both characters indicate the conflicts resulting from personal reactions to the changes in the community that they live. In both cases, the characters are demonstrated as aliens or outsiders that help in indicating the relationship between their society and culture. Due to such alienations and being outsiders in the societies, both characters experience sufferings and dilemmas, as they try to cope with their new environments as well as accomplishing their mission. Lastly, it covers a critique highlighting the main ideas and controversies in the novels brought about the character traits of the two individuals.
Utopia: The dispossessed
Shevek is the main character, a physicist, who goes through various dilemmas in the journey of an anarchist socialist utopia. Annares, the country of dispossessed, is discussed as the utopia in the novel as the anarchist moon colony. Shevek is described as the genius in the society, whose dream of pursuing as well as publishing his literature work has been hindered for a long period (LeGuin 95). However, the author of the literary work hopes for the best. For instance, he makes use of the general temporal theory to show the possibilities of better communication and traveling in the future. Shevek fights against all the odds of his community and travels to Urras planet, which is the origin of the Odonians, where he tries to attain freedom to present his discoveries.
He argues that “career, like the existence of his society, depended on the continuance of a fundamental, unadmitted profit-contract. Not a relationship of mutual aid and solidarity, but an exploitative relationship; not organic, but mechanical” (LeGuin 95). He overcomes all the restriction through broadcasting his discoveries across the globe that in turn helps in opening good communication between the planets. Initially, he had decided to travel to the other planet to reunite the society or for the good of the society as shown by the statement, “He had chosen, in defiance of the expectations of his society, to do the work he was individually called to do. To do it was to rebel: to risk the self for the sake of society” (LeGuin 225). Shevek is described as a man with philosophical enlightenment, critical thoughts and everlasting realism in the features of the world.
The Dispossessed shows a social political hypothesis on the relationship and cohesion between scarcity and utopia. Using the political theories, the author of the dispossessed tries to present his book as an imagery of an anarchists’ society that continues to survive under the hardship and scarcity of Annares. Shevek observes that politics have a certain nature where hard times of problems promote cooperation among the people. On the other hand, good times alienate the people thereby indicating that there is no eminent threat that people team up to eliminate but suspicion and disagreement on the right strategies. From the book, it can also be seen that there is a relationship that exists between wealth and circumstance.
The members of Shevek’s community are aware that they can only get a government that they can afford. In addition, they are aware that the anarchy form of government requires resources such as infrastructure to facilitate its establishment, as it is evident from the statement “they knew that their anarchism was the product of a very high civilization, of a complex diversified culture, of a stable economy and a highly industrialized technology” (LeGuin 82). Therefore, without these resources, it was not possible to establish a utopian society, which the members of the community had desired. It is evident where Shevek had a chance to interact with the representative of the earth. The visors of Annares experience the utopia of scarcity, which is almost described as deprivations due to the desert conditions that exist. Ambiguity is present in the utopia since it is not justified to call scarcity sufficient but to call a desert land a utopia is ambiguous in some senses. Ambiguity in Annares is also identified in the settings where the planet is based on traditional institutions but without good traditional strategies of the fulfillment of good governance as well as leadership.
The left hand of darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness illuminates the excitement of the human subconscious mind while facing the dangers of a threatening environment. Additionally, it describes the emotional involvement of observing human and social conflicts in a strange land. The author of the novel brings out the character traits in the story using two distinct points of view. On one hand, it reflects the revelation of the characters’ nature through actions. On the other hand, it displays the impressions or the characters’ perception by others. The primary focus is on Genly Ai, who is the main character in the story thereby helping in the identification of various themes that the novel displays. He plays three main roles in the narrative. The first role is in the form of I, where he is viewed as a narrator, who focuses on all things from his personal point of view. In the form of I, he describes himself as the black young man that is sent to Gethen to convince the inhabitants to join the interplanetary league. He mentions that he is black to show that race is also a source of social dilemma among the people across the globe.
His mission fails due to the lack of understanding and acceptance due to the fact that people are different from him. In Gethen, Ai is viewed as an alien, who is unable to communicate and negotiate with the people of Gethen to identify their points of view as well as thinking. Secondly, he plays the role of the observer of other people where he endangers his life by misjudging others and activities around him. He views himself as a stranger when he says "few foreigners are so foreign as I” instead of trying to understand the cultures of the new planet (LeGuin 78). His inability to establish a relationship and understand the life of the Gethenians hindered him from attaining his mission. As such, it is necessary to realize that his political mission of forming alliances with Gethen could only have been achieved through overcoming alienation, establishing a personal relationship with the Gethenians as well as creating good communications. Ai outlines the cry of pain that helps in bringing out the concepts of the self-discovery where the character is seen as arrogant and not ready to change his attitude as well as the perception of others.
However, when left alone with Estraven on the ice, he realizes that they share a common thing that is humanity and accepts that they also have differences. He embraces the potential of females in the society as well that stages the platform for him to achieve his mission. The other difference in humanity and culture is shown where the Gethenians are ambisexual in that there is no divide between sexes. Both men and women are termed as men except during the kemmer period where genders are distinguished. It is different from the culture of Ai’s homeland, which makes him feel irritated by the feminist traits of the king when he describes the king’s laughter as "shrilly like an angry woman," (LeGuin 56). The primary reason for the author to discuss the ambisexual fictional world is to help the readers to identify how sexual stereotyping is a common factor in human concepts of personalities. Additionally, sexual stereotyping has significant impacts on the overall relationships among human beings and the inclination of the cultures of the people to sex.
Critique and conclusion
In both novels, the characters are aliens in various geographical locations that invoke the horrific experiences among them, as they try to cope with the new geographical locations. The visors of Annares experience the utopia of scarcity, which is almost described as deprivations due to the desert conditions that exist, as mentioned earlier. Ambiguity is present in the utopia since it is not justified to call scarcity sufficient but to call a desert land a utopia is ambiguous in some senses. Ambiguity in Annares is also identified in the settings where the planet is based on traditional institutions but without good traditional strategies of the fulfillment of good governance. In this regard, The Dispossessed shows a social political hypothesis on the relationship and cohesion between scarcity and utopia. Using the political theories, the author of the novel tries to present his book as an imagery of the of an anarchists’ society that continues to survive under the hardship and scarcity of Annares, as mentioned earlier. However, it is essential to discover that it is difficult to obtain utopia in a society built on scarcity that leaves the readers with the doubts on whether the anarchy can survive with economic shortages or not.
On the other hand, The Left Hand of Darkness illuminates the excitement of the human subconscious mind while facing the dangers of a threatening environment. Additionally, it describes the emotional involvement of observing human and social conflicts in a strange land. As such, the new environment invokes terrifying experiences and feelings among the aliens, who visit the strange land in search of personal fulfillment and freedom. Both characters try to go beyond the odds for the benefits of the community such as forming relationships and opening communications among the planets. In conclusion, gender and race are also important aspects of life that have been discussed in both novels since they define the social standings and institutions of the society. LeGuin’s works can be criticized for not being expansive on feminism and for using the male protagonists in many instances. Additionally, the author pays much attention to political as well as ecological issues more than the concepts of feminism. Therefore, readers are left with thoughts of gender discrimination because of the male characters that the author uses in both novels.
Works Cited
LeGuin, Ursula K. The dispossessed. Hachette UK, 2015.
LeGuin, Ursula K. The left hand of darkness. Hachette UK, 2012.
