Ursula K. Le Guin

hatred? Acceptance or rejection? Our world is a balance between the two, but what if it was lopsided? Discrimination and chaos would rule the world. It would corrupt our lives and spread like a disease. In the stories, “The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. Le Guin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, they convey the theme of discrimination. On the other hand, “American Flag Stands for Tolerance” by Ronald J. Allen, shows his opinion on acceptance. Throughout these stories, they all show that…

The story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin demonstrates a powerful symbol that expresses how the city of Omelas is able to hold itself together, specifically the child in the basement. It states that the basement the child is in is located in a beautiful and luxurious building or home, but once someone steps down to the basement, they are in for a disturbing view. The quote: “Some of [the citizens of Omelas] understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that…

On May 22, 1983, The Left-Handed Commencement was given by Ursula K. Le Guin an American novelist; gave this speech to the Mills College class of 1983, specifically meant for the female graduates. Like many speeches it was motivational; she also discussed gender equality. Le Guin uses numerous rhetorical devices to explain her views on women in society. The address’s primary purpose is show that women are not inferior to men: they are equal. This speech was written in the second wave of…

In the short stories “The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. Le Guin and “Battle Royale,” by Ralph Ellison, the characters are examples of those who conform and those who accept. In both stories, what the characters did was good and beneficial for their survival. The people who lived in Omelas were accepting of their situation and the consequences if they were to do things differently, while the main character in “Battle Royale” conformed into the person everyone in the book wanted…

In her 1983 commencement address, “A Left-Handed Commencement Speech,” Ursula K Le Guin offers a very straightforward yet motivational message to graduates of Mills College, an all female school. She states that women are foreigners in an extremely male-dominated society full of aggression and power and emphasizes her argument that women are peaceful compared to men, thus highlighting the difference between the two genders. She encourages her audience to live and succeed on their own terms…

It is non-fiction; thus, the narrator is Le Guin, who utilises third person POV and is heterodiegetic; however, Le Guin is the viewpoint character. The narration is not attached to a single character or event; therefore, Le Guin is an omniscient and unlimited narrator, who is objective, as she focuses on facts, which gives the paragraph clarity. Third person POV creates a large emotional…

“Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing” (Le Guin). Throughout the story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” author Ursula K. Le Guin has the narrator asking the reader many rhetorical questions that forces the reader to investigate their own thoughts, morals, or beliefs. This is often the case with short stories, which present questions in the form of a parable that shares a moral lesson with the reader. “The Ones Who Walk Away…

The narrative mode of the first sentence is a report that ‘Humpback whales sing’ (Le Guin 2004, p. 175). The second sentence begins by reporting when males sing, before commenting on the implication of the timing. The third sentence report that ‘…both sexes sing…’ and that humpback whale populations have their own song (Le Guin 2004, p. 175). The fourth sentence reports the complexity of humpback whale songs and describes how long they can be. Thus, the…

Ai and Estraven, along with the rest of the people of Gethen in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, struggle at times to understand each other's different genders, sexualities, and cultures. Ai’s sexuality and gender are the same as the average human on Earth, while the people of Gethen are androgynes and only have a gender during their one week mating period, called kemmer, each month. Le Guin is using Ai, Estraven, and the people of Gethen to illustrate how people with varying…

While creating the story The Left Hand Of Darkness the author Ursula K. Le Guin had to create a world completely different than the one we know, while maintaining certain characteristics known by the reader and Genly Ai in order to create a story we could understand, and partially relate to. To accomplish this Le Guin had to overcome gender roles in the society that we know. Not being for the planet Gethen the ambiguous nature of gender and sex roles create a barrier that becomes difficult for…