Sex in Ursula K. LeGuins The Left Hand of Darkness Essay -- essays re

Let’s Talk About Sex Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of Genly Ai’s travels to a strange planet called Gethen, or Winter. His mission there is to persuade the nations of Gethen to join an alliance Genly Ai represents called the â€Å"Ekumen†. However, his journey is rather difficult due to the great difference in societies from Genly Ai’s home planet, Earth, and this new one. In Gethen, he learns that the people are completely unsexed for the majority of their days. When they are sexed, it is only for a few days and each person is either male or female during this time. The different governments use Genly Ai as a pawn, but in the end they join the alliance. Unfortunately, it comes with the price of his friend’s life. LeGuin has Genly Ai’s descriptions of gender become less and less male or female for the purpose of showing his assimilation on Gethen. When Genly Ai first arrives on Gethen, LeGuin has him sex everyone to show how much of a stranger he is to the planet. LeGuin has Estraven and Genly Ai supper at Estraven’s house, at which time LeGuin has Genly Ai think about the androgynous people of Gethen and she has him realize that he sees â€Å"a Gethenian first as a man, than as a woman, forcing him into those categories so irrelevant to his nature†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (12). When LeGuin has Genly Ai say this, she is showing the way Genly Ai’s understanding of sex being very set in place is also a representation of how he is mentally unfit with the rest of the Gethenians. Additionally, LeGuin has Genly Ai call everyone on Gethen â€Å"man†, and †he† because he cannot picture a culture that has no distinction between sexes at all times. When LeGuin has Genly Ai meet the King of Gethen, Argaven up close, she has him remark that â€Å"Argaven ... ...raven] what women are like†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (235). LeGuin has Genly Ai struggle with this thought as a show of how used to unsexed people he really is. When LeGuin has him see permanently sexed people from his home planet, LeGuin has him be so unfamiliar with it that he doesn’t like it. At first sight, LeGuin has Genly Ai describe them as â€Å"†¦a troupe of great, strange animals, of two different species, great apes with intelligent eyes, all of them in rut, in kemmer†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (296). LeGuin has Genly Ai experience these people in such a negative way because Genly Ai simply wasn’t used to the sight of such sexed people. LeGuin even went so far as to have Genly Ai include the Gethenian word â€Å"kemmer† to show how much assimilation has taken place within him. It is in this way that LeGuin uses Genly Ai’s descriptions become less and less gendered to show that he has accepted the culture on Gethen.