The Theme of Conquest: The Word for World is Forest

Maramanee Olson

The Theme of Conquest: The Word for World is Forest

Maramanee Olson

2012

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5 pages

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In "The Word for World is Forest," Ursula Le Guin tackles a range of different issues clearly stemming from the political climate of the late 60's, and her own knowledge of anthropology. The most obvious theme, I feel, is clearly the overarching one of oppressors and Le Guin, Ursula. The Word for World is Forest. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1972.

English 284, Paper #1 Manee Olson March 15, 2012 In “The Word for World is Forest,” Ursula Le Guin tackles a range of different issues clearly stemming from the political climate of the late 60’s, and her own knowledge of anthropology. The most obvious theme, I feel, is clearly the overarching one of oppressors and the oppressed, and the changes they create for each other; it is the dominant theme that drives the novel’s message. The novel itself is a literal set-up of the “New World,” in this case, an entirely different planet from Earth. While it is arguably no different a situation than, say, the Spanish conquistadors casually enslaving the natives of America, it does lend a subtle difference: we are not dealing with just a “different” culture. The Athsheans, having come from the same genetic stock as Earth’s humans, are still nonetheless so much further removed from the Terrans than the Spanish from the Taino or the Aztec. It is definitely an alien culture in all sense of the word. It’s possible to speculate that the two groups could not even breed; it may not be an accident than Le Guin never mentions any children having been born, despite obvious sexual relations occurring. The possibility of children being born as essentially population expansion does come up, however; it is mentioned specifically by Selver as a reason for the slaughter of the Earth women who had arrived at the beginning of the book. “We killed them to sterilize you” (178), he says, after being confronted by Gosse. It is a rather specific twist to the history of conquest; usually, it is the conquerors that have no compunction about killing the women and children of the native people in their way, usually with the goal of either wiping out the culture, or crippling it badly enough to prevent uprising. By killing the women, the Athsheans were working in reverse, to prevent the Terran culture from spreading, “to breed like insects in the carcass of the World” (178) as Selver describes them. Le Guin further uses the historical as a template for the fictional with the rise of Selver as a leader for his people. Selver, an otherwise unremarkable Athshean before the arrival of the colonists, becomes a sha’ab after witnessing the death of his wife and being beaten nearly to death by Davidson. He is an example of the “prophet” or the “medicine man” that appear during the history of European expansion across the North American continent, e.g. Black Elk of the Oglala Sioux, or Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee. Selver dreams the concept of murder, essentially creating it as an entirely new idea for the Athshean, becoming the catalyst for change for his people. However, Le Guin makes it explicit that the change is not necessarily a good one, using Raj Lyubov to ponder upon Selver’s creation. His musings over Selver’s dreams cast Selver and Davidson as opposites, though they ultimately come to the same result. Murder becomes their answer to the question of dealing with the undesirables in their way. Though both are human (and Selver arguably does not stop seeing the Terrans as such, though Davidson is dead-set upon the idea of returning the favour), their respectively different upbringing does not matter. Lyubov considers the possibility that it’s Davidson’s casual disregard of the Ashtheans as possibly infecting Selver’s dreams, that the Ashtheans could not possibly have dreamt of such a thing. “But had he learned to kill his fellowmen among his own dreams of outrage and bereavement, or from the undreamed-of-actions of the stranger” (154)? Lyubov is arguably making his own assumptions about the Ashtheans in comparison to Terrans, that they are somehow so “Edenic” and pure of mind that they could not conceive of murder; a Terran had to give it to them. Selver’s meeting with Davidson in the forest makes it clear, however, that both men are gods of their respective ideological territories. It is the pivot point of the novel, the trade-off of their respective creations: Davidson to kill, and Selver to preserve. Selver’s method is somewhat pyrric, though; Davidson is left on an island that the Terrans deforested fully. If Selver had not promised deliveries of food and wood, it would be the desert equivalent of Shrodinger’s cat box, with no one responsible for Davidson’s death. Or, as Selver puts it, “I can’t kill you, Davidson. You’re a god. You must do it yourself” (227). Unlike Davidson, who personally tried to beat Selver to death, Selver gives him a modicum of respect in return by refusing to do so and treating him as a madman; still human, but incapable of taking responsibility. There is a resonance of empathy throughout the entire conversation that was lost in the film Avatar, where Jake (a human in Na’avi clothing) has no compunction killing his former commander, a fellow human. It quite starkly shows the difference between the two stories, and how Le Guin clearly meant to show that death is not always the best response, as well as the understanding that differences in culture and skin do not create such an awesome divide as to make murder any less horrific. The book ends on what seems, at a quick glance, to be a happy ending: the Terrans are leaving, several years after the killing at Centralville. There has been no more killing between the two groups. In Avatar, this ending was one of simplicity: the humans were leaving, and the Na’avi would return to their forests as if nothing had ever happened, with Jake now fully enmeshed within his Avatar. In “The Word for World is Forest,” it is clear that the Ashtheans have been irrevocably changed from the presence of the Terrans. Selver says specifically to Lepennon that “you cannot take things that exist in the world and try to drive them back into the dream, to hold them inside the dream with walls and pretenses” (236). The clash of oppressor and oppressed has changed Ashthean society; though they have driven out the Terrans, they have left behind scars upon the landscape, both literally and figuratively. The Vietnam War, which Le Guin admitted to be an influence, ended in much the same way. Though the Vietnamese finally gained their freedom, it was done through the influences of an outside source (Communism), and they have assimilated outside cultures (French, Chinese) into their own. Le Guin’s story is both reminiscent and precognitive; it is a bittersweet victory. Once the Terrans return to Earth, it is possible they will keep their word not to return, but history has proven that it is usually not the case. And as Selver ends the story: “Maybe after I die people will be as they were before I was born, and before you came. But I do not think they will” (236). Works Cited Le Guin, Ursula. The Word for World is Forest. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1972. Ebook. Olson 5

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