Ursula Le Guin Weaknesses

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The ability to be self-reflective and self-critical is one of the hardest but most important skills to have and it is one of Ursula K Le Guin's greatest strengths. Le Guin was one of the first fantasy writers to write about a wizard world and magical powers. She was at a young age when she wrote the first three novels in her bestselling series, Earthsea. She wrote these books for children, with just pleasure in mind, but 20 years later Le Guin regrets this. As Ursula Le Guin became older, she became very involved in the feminist community, writing books about equality and the power of women. She criticized many books for have themes of patriarchy but eventually realized she was being hypocritical. Her own writing, the Earthsea series, developed…show more content…
Laura B. Comoletti and Michael D. C. Drought, in their literary criticism of the Earthsea series state, “Although the world she created was vibrant, alive, and unique in many ways, with its own history, traditions and laws, it essentially mirrored the social structure of the world in which she was raised” (How they do things with words: Language, power, gender, and the priestly wizards of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books). This is proven correct in the first three books of the Earthsea series. Roke, the wizarding school thought the series can be compared to the Church itself. It is lead by an Archmage who is elected by Masters of Roke, and the Archmage serves as a figure of authority and absolute power for the rest of his life. Both the Archmage and the masters have extremely high social rank in the rest of the world. This copies the format of the Church with the pope and the cardinals. Another example of a Christian society in the books are mages themselves. They study at Roke for years, and after leave to help small communities. The Church is completely a patriarchal society, where the highest positions; priests, cardinals, and a pope, are all positions that women are not allowed to hold. It is easy for Le Guin to make a patriarchal society, because she was brought up…show more content…
Ged is the main character in the book, and is known as the most powerful wizard ever. On the first page of the first book, Geb is described as, “A Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea. Of these some say the greatest, and surely the greatest voyager, was the man called Sparrowhawk (Ged), who in his day bacme both dragonlord and Archmage” (A Wizard of Earthsea 1). It is clear that men, and in specific Ged, have all the power in the first three books. This clearly can be shown when Ged and Tenar from the Tombs of Atuan. Tenar is supposed to be a girl with extreme power, but does not realize that she is being lead down a bad path. It takes Geb, a man, for her to realize that things are wrong. Geb leads their escape, using his power to leave the tombs with Tenar for good. During the escape, Ged flaunts his power by saying, “Tenar, I hold the roof up over our heads,this moment. I keep the walls from closing in upon us. I keep the ground from opening beneath our feet. I have done this since we passed the pit where the servant waited. If I can hold off the earthquake, do you fear to meet one human soul with me?” (The Tombs of Atuan 143). Geb obviously knows his extreme power, and says he can
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