Why The Word For World Is Forest

The Word For World is Forest
The Word For World Is Forest is a short story by Ursula LeGuin, published in 1972. She was an American author who believed that science fiction is anthropology. She teaches people about society through science fiction and other worlds in her stories. A lot happens in this story, it’s pretty fast paced and lots of interesting things occur. While the story is told in third person, it does focus on a certain character depending on the chapter, allowing us to see their point of view. There’s also lots of conflict in this story, most of which we can relate to. This story teaches a lot of life lessons and is very thought provoking. I think this is a must read because it’s not only a very exciting book, it’s meaningful

It brings up deforesting and killing our earth but also sexism, racism and more. It talks about what was essentially the end of the world as it mentions the state of the earth and how it’s uninhabitable. Even though they made mistakes there they didn’t learn from them; they continue to disrespect nature and I think that reflects our society. Sexism is both obvious and inconspicuous in this story. It’s mostly coming from Davidson. Referring to the females as objects, thinking their only purpose is sex and speaking and thinking about them in a very degrading manner. He also makes rape jokes and subtle comments that put women down. The difference is shown in the Athshean culture where women are respected and even leading colonies. It also shows a lot about racism. In this story the captain is obviously racist; he thinks less of a group of people because of where they were born, what language they speak and their beliefs. But the Athsheans learn racial hatred as well. Slever refers to his human friend Lyubov as “one of them” towards the end of the story and rejects his friendship. Even though he wasn’t rejecting Lyubov for being Lyubov, he rejected him for being human, and it hurt just as much. When Lyubov is dying, Selver tells him he’s different, Lyubov replies, “we’re all the same”. I think that Lyubov’s last words to Selver speak to the underlying meaning of this story. In a way, both sides were wrong. Raiding the camp filled with innocent women was not ideal. Both sides liked to think of themselves in the right, as better or maybe even innocent. I think that’s a common thing that people do and it was very well represented in this book. The night before Lyubov dies he asks, “what must I do?”. Even if you don’t actively participate in the war, we sometimes blame ourselves for what is happening. I think this is a good book to read because it covers so many important topics, gets the reader thinking about