Analysis Of Ursula Leguin's Very Far Away From Anywhere Else

Do you ever feel like nobody knows the real you? Does keeping your questions and thoughts to yourself really cause less problems? Teachers, parents, and guidance counselors are always telling their kids and students to always be open about their feelings, in order for them to be able to be there for you and help you achieve your goals. Ursula LeGuin employs this topic in her novel, Very Far Away from Anywhere Else, written during the early 21st century. Set in a small city, the story revolves around Owen, a senior in high school, who is considered to be a loner and outsider. One of LeGuin’s focal points of the novel is Owen’s interaction with his parents, and how it affects him. Owen has never fully expressed his true feelings to anyone, especially …show more content…
When it comes to relationships, especially with your parents, Owen’s relationship with his family isn’t the best example. Like any other teenager, Owen’s parents thought that he’d love to get a car. Unfortunately for them, Owen has no desire to have a car, and feels remorseful and irritated about the gift. The first thing that comes into his head is,“What did that thing cost? I didn’t ask, but it was at least three thousand dollars… For that kind of money I could have lived for a year or more at MIT, if I got a scholarship.”(12) If Owen had told his parents in the first place about saving the money for college, they wouldn’t have gotten him the car. Owen continues to find excuses to not drive the car, “What I was was the type who walks to school.. because walking is the kind of exercise I like, and I really like the streets of the city.” (14) His parents never knew how much he loved walking, because if they did, then why would they get him a car? He’s anxious about what his parents will say when they find out he’s not driving the car, when he thinks, “I wondered how my father would say, ‘Didn’t you take the car to school? Why not?’ tonight. The thought made me twitch.” (16) Owen has no right to be bothered and irritated about his father’s question, because he gave his parents no indication that he didn’t want the …show more content…
Owen claims, “I was lucky, as they say, since the car was totalled.” (89) He no longer has to worry about pretending to enjoy the car, and his parents were glad that he was okay and forgot about the car. Towards the end of his senior year, Owen builds up the courage to finally tell his parents how he feels when he declares, “I got the scholarship thing out of my desk drawer next day and showed it to my parents, and said that with the car insurance money I could get started at MIT.” (128) By doing this, it shows the reader how much Owen has grown throughout the novel just from one small action. To Owen’s surprise, his parents support his decision under certain conditions when his father states, “..If I worked summers and kept getting tuition scholarships, he would pay the rest.” Owen’s mother on the other hand took some convincing, but ended up agreeing when, “She began forgetting to resent by about the middle of May. A couple of weeks after that she bought me some ties, very tasteful dark stripes, because she has this conviction that Eastern College Men wear ties to class.” (131) His parents reactions are significant because it proves that if they’d known Owen’s intentions all along, they would have been there to help him achieve them. Through all of this Owen comes to the conclusion that, “This is what you always forget, you think you