End of Story Reflections Blog #5

I didn’t expect The Left Hand of Darkness to end with the death of Estarven, Genly’s best and trusted friend from Gethen. I was waiting to read about a war between Karhide and Orgoreyn, since Genly had said that the Gethenians had never fought a war with each other or anywhere else. If war had broken out, I’m pretty sure that Karhide and Orgoreyn would have declared peace between each other. Declaring war to make peace, however, would go against what Gethenians follow, which is to not progress. I liked the story overall because it helped imagine how a world with no sexes would work like, by bringing in a “human from Earth” to an androgynous society to unite the Ekumen and Gethen. Aside from Estraven’s death, Genly actually brought his ship down to Gethen, which I thought would never happen after Estraven’s death. I thought it was weird when Genly encountered one of his people, like for example Lang Heo Hew, because he found it strange to hear a woman’s voice after only three years away from his ship. It seemed like he was a native of planet Gethen when he felt uncomfortable to the touch and sound of Lang Heo Hew. I think that Genly actually did accomplish his mission after all, because his crewmembers were dispersed throughout the planet, which most likely made the Gethenians believe that the Ekumen did want an alliance with Gethen. Near the end of the story, where Sorve demanded to hear the story of how Genly and Estraven crossed the Ice, I thought it was too sudden to end the story. I don’t really understand why Therem’s son wanted to know how Therem died. Maybe it was because he thought Therem was a Traitor for leaving his family behind or something like that. Estraven’s father, Lord of Estre, said it mattered if Estraven was called a Traitor or not probably because he loved him so much that he wanted his son to be recognized as a hero instead of a Traitor.
The use of the pronoun “he” for every Gethenian really did make me imagine that every Gethenian was a male and not adrogynous. LeGuin didn’t only use the pronoun “he” throughout the whole story though. She used “her” for the sledge like for example in pg244-245:

“We had to haul the sledge up and over each knife-edged or fantastically corniced top, then slide her down, and up over the next one: for they never seemed to run parallel to our course.”

She also used “she” when she described Genly’s ship coming down to Gethen on pg295:

“She came down in a roar and glory, and steam went roaring up white as her stabilizers went down in the great lake of water and mud created by the retro; down underneath the bog there was permafrost like granite, and she came to rest balanced neatly, and sat cooling over the quickly refreezing lake, a great, delicate fish balanced on its tail, dark silver in the twilight of Winter.”

I think she just used “she” because we use “she” in our society sometimes to refer to something like she referred to. Genly is a “human from Earth” after all like from our society. Another reason I think she would use “she” might be to show how “she” is important to use after the pronoun “he” is used, just like she unites darkness and brightness in her story.