Analysis Of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand Of Darkness

For my final paper, I choose to read the novel “The Left Hand of Darkness” written by Ursula K. Le Guin. This story touches on many key topics including the importance of communication, trust, acceptance, gender, and love in a society. It always deals a lot with politics and what it means to be a traitor. All of these topics are combined to show the intent of the story, which is the importance of unity. The main character, Ai, goes to a foreign plant and tried to get the people of the planet to join other plants in an alliance, and to do so he must overcome all of these obstacles in order to accomplish his task and unite the universe. The narrator clarifies within the first page of the book that all of the stories he is about to tell aren’t necessarily all his, but that everything is one story. The title of the book may seem confusing, but it is explained in a quote Estraven says to Ai while their making their journey across the frozen wasteland. “Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light. Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way” (pg. 168). This poem is talking about unity. Light and dark holding …show more content…
It implies that loving others, love for one’s planet, love for peace, and love for one’s culture are extremely important. Although Ai and Estraven never share an intimate physical connection, they fall in love with each other during their journey. When you take gender out of the equation, you learn to like or dislike someone based solely on their personality. Although Ai can’t decide whether or not Estraven reminds him more of a male or female, he begins falling in love with the person he is. Le Guin is trying to say that gender and love don’t always go together. Gender isn’t what makes a person good or bad, it is their actions, and Estraven and Ai’s actions between each other suggest they truly love each