Discuss Genly Ai's struggle to see Gethenians as they see themselves. What do Genly Ai's attitudes reveal about the world he comes from?
I believe that Gently has a hard time seeing Gethenians as them selfs because he is pretty much alone and most of the people he meets, ends up being a bad experience. Since he has no one to connect with or someone he could trust, he has a hard time trying to understand them. Especially after Estraven leaves him, as he was the only one there for Gently. Besides that, he comes from the earth where everything and everyone in society has to have a name or belongs to a certain group. So growing up his whole life seeing opposite genders and wars to solve the conflict and then all of the sudden going to the world where everyone is equal, is a little bit mind-boggling.
As far as Gently's attitude, he seems to want to understand and he is filled with curiosity and wonder; however, he gets frustrated for the same reason that he does not understand Gethenians. His loneliness doesn't help either, as he feels like he is being used, in the book he even talks about how he," (Doesn't) want to play, and is used to the volcanic Karhidish tempers by now" (ch, 8 Pg. 105). He is annoyed, and throughout the chapters, he starts to speak more of his mind instead of just being courteous and continuing on with the conversation.
I agree with what you are saying and I wanted to include that because he is much different from the Gethenians and foreign to their culture and way of life, he struggles to understand them. And partly why Genly has such a difficult time adjusting to his new surroundings and it shows through his loneliness. His attitude towards them shows that he comes from a world much different categorizing men and women and he finds it unusual that gender is no such thing unless experiencing "kemmer".
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you because it does suck to be part of something that is new to you. Most of the time you need to know what is happening most of the time.The good thing about having bad experiences is that he will or already did learn.But yes most of the time it is always good to look at the bright side of things and always look up to things. Hes not letting one thing that happened ruin what he is doing or wants to do.
ReplyDelete