Introductions for Revision of The Left Hand of Darkness

For Mainstream English Year 12 students studying the novel The Left Hand of Darkness written by Ursula K. Le Guin, AOS1: Unit 3, Reading and Creating Texts, Analytical Response Outcome.

See below a series of Introductions with clear Main Contention and Message of Author colour coded to help you.

Prompt ‘Genly’s narrative is a journey towards greater self-knowledge’.  Discuss.

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

Ursula K. Le Guin describes fantasy as journey inward to self-knowledge which becomes the natural language for telling “the spiritual journey and the struggle of good and evil in the soul.”  The journey is one of literature’s most prominent archetypal symbols, telling of man’s journey through life.  In her novel The Left Hand of Darkness Le Guin explores how Genly’s outer journey parallels his inner journey.  Genly’s growth towards greater self-knowledge is not immediate but is a gradual process being placed in an alien culture and the challenging even life-threatening experiences that result.  In fact, Genly’s most important journey is not from planet Terra to planet Gethen but his onerous and risky journey across the wastes of the Gobrin Ice, together with Estraven, the native, the ‘Other’.  Genly’s view of Estraven transforms from feelings of distrust and alienation to a sense of acceptance and a shared humanity.  They both begin to see one another without the filtering gaze of androgyny, kemmer, the alien and political machinations occluding their view.  While they both grow, it is Genly’s transformation that is most profound.  Consequently, this journey across the ice reflects another more significant voyage of Genly’s true journey is a pilgrimage into himself and of his self-knowledge of the relationship with the ‘Other’.  Once Genly is able to accept that Estraven represents another race and perspective on life, he understands his role of Envoy as more spiritual, a notion he had only understood in the abstract previously.  Le Guin’s basic principle that, to understand oneself, we must be able to understand the other acts as a redefining tool of one’s identity and understanding of place in society.

Prompt “Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness is the right hand of light.”  What role do binary opposites play in the narrative?

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

The Left Hand of Darkness is shaped by author Ursula K. Le Guin’s study of the Daoist philosophy of yin and yang; opposites and reversals.  Nowhere is that more evident than the carefully crafted binaries and juxtapositions that exist on almost every level in the narrative.  Le Guin not only highlights the important role opposites play in the narrative for the sake of contrast; but she stresses the necessity of accepting both extremes to realise the whole.  The quote from Estraven in chapter 15:“Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness is the right hand of light” is a clear reference to the complimentary relationship between opposites in the yin and yang.  In fact, the entire story is one of a correlation between opposites from the structure of the narrative, the androgynous nature of the Gethenians, the anthropology of Karhide and Orgoreyn, the characters’ relationships and the contrasting themes woven into the fabric of the novel.  Yet when Le Guin asks her readers what is left without gender in the cold, harsh and isolating world of Gethen, her answer is love.  Genly and Estraven’s love, in spite of the binary differences between, became the bridge that enabled both characters to accept each other’s differences.  All of these facets of the novel are crucial for readers to comprehend Le Guin’s belief that society can live in harmony if there is a better balance of integration between binaries than struggling with dualism.

Prompt ‘Fear is the underlying cause of the conflicts in The Left Hand of Darkness’.  Discuss

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

In her novel The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin not only explores the important role opposites play in the narrative for the sake of contrast, such as fear and courage; but she stresses the necessity of accepting both extremes to realise the whole.  In fact, Le Guin investigates how fear binds people together and also disperses them therefore challenging the ways in which a fear of difference or the ‘other’ leads to a fear of change.  King Argaven is the personification of this fear and it is at the core of his political anxiety.  In this sense fear is central to the underlying conflicts in Le Guin’s text particularly in relation to political change in both Karhide and Orgoreyn.  Patriotism and shifting political alliances are significant themes in the novel and offer insight into the role that fear plays in shaping human societies and behaviours.  In a broader sense, fear of the ‘other’ not only underlies conflicts in the text but it also prevents characters from transforming themselves and their society in positive ways.  Genly’s misunderstanding of the differences between himself and the Gethenians is based on fear.  However, his eventual acceptance of both change and the otherness of Estraven suggest that fear can transform into empathy and subsequently, friendship and growth that ultimately is the author’s message of hope.

Prompt “The story is not all mine, nor told by me alone”.  How do the intertwined narratives affect the reader’s understanding of the text?

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

In her novel The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin asks her readers to question the multifaceted nature of the novel to enable a more complete and unbiased perspective of her imagined world of Gethen.  She interweaves the narrative structure to demonstrate that truth is not funnelled through a single lens rather a great truth is all encompassing.  Le Guin weaves a complex and sometimes contradictory picture of reality, showing that a variety of viewpoints gives a more complete picture than a single viewpoint ever could.  Le Guin uses many different voices and styles that are constantly shifting as narrative perspectives and genres shift.  Her imaginary narrative weaves deliberately to disrupt the predictable traditional narrative so the reader becomes like an amateur anthropologist like Genly casting around for meaning for ways to make sense.  As primary narrators Genly and Estraven together present a chronological story with narration from two different perspectives.  While they never explicitly tell lies in their storytelling, their interpretations of events often differ, as each one shapes the narrative through his version of the truth.  Other chapters make use of documents such as field reports, religious texts and folktales give depth and help tell the whole story of Gethen, but when read together, the various viewpoints intertwine and help to create an expansive, multifaceted picture of Le Guin’s imagined world of Gethen.

Prompt: ”What is more important the journey or the destination?”

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

In her novel The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin explores how Genly’s outer physical journey parallels his inner spiritual journey towards self-knowledge.  Moreover, the journey is crucial to the success of the destination to bring Gethen into an alliance with the Ekumen.  As a consequence, the trust and positive character of Estraven is a key component in both the physical and spiritual journey of Genly and the harmonious unification of Gethen once they join the Ekumen.  In an interview with Carl H. Freedman Le Guin explained fantasy as the best medium to describe the journey inward to self-knowledge, because for her, the journey to other planets, to outer space, is a metaphor for the journey inwards in the unconscious.  In effect the whole of Left Hand of Darkness is a journey for readers into Le Guin’s fantasy world of self-discovery.  Ultimately, Le Guin elucidates that the story of the journey is equally as important as the significance of the destination.  Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”.  The text shows how this statement is relevant to the physical and spiritual journey of Genly.  He takes a step towards his mission’s success but at first, he can not see the end goal, but with the help of Estraven, he achieves his goal of unifying Karhide and Orgoreyn within the Ekumen.

Prompt: “Why is the juxtaposition of man and nature in The Left Hand of Darkness so important to Genly’s relationships and acceptance on Gethen?”

Main Contention / Introduction / Message of Author

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Left Hand of Darkness nature and its relationship to the characters are an essential theme.  Le Guin uses her knowledge of the Tao in her novel, with its principles within nature, that emphasizes the metaphysical foundations of nature, stressing harmony and balance.  In effect, Le Guin explores how man and nature are a unity and how man’s fate is part of the function and the totality of the universe.  Le Guin elucidates through her character of Genly, that man can find peace only when he is completely attuned to the universe.  Genly, an alien on Gethen, is constantly cold and is unable to adjust to the climate which becomes a metaphor for his inability to understand and accept the Gethenians.  He is foreign to their androgyny, their environment, and their climate. Therefore, it is even more meaningful that it is on the Gobrin Ice, in bitter cold, that Genly learns to adjust himself, mentally and physically, to the cold planet and its inhabitants.  It is when Estraven comments that Ai “sweats like one of us” that the ice between them begins to melt.