Monday, February 5, 2018
Wave 1
In the Left Hand of Darkness, Genly faces a challenge on how to view the Gethenians. The reason for this is because the Gethenians do not have a specific gender until they enter kemmer which is a stage in which the Gethenians develop a sexual drive and then determine a specific gender. In the beginning, Genly is confused on this awkward stage for these people and can seem very sexist through the book. It takes Genly some time to adjust to this different cycle, whereas to his world you are born male or female and remain that way. Genly had also assigned specific genders to some people which created even more confusion for him because of the constant changing of gender. This shows the little bit of struggle that Genly has faced in this confusing world, but has adjusted since getting used to it.
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I see why Genly had assigned specific genders to certain people but it also kinda does not make sense to me because why would he try to remember everyone's gender even though it's hard for him already. Its also true that it takes Genly a long time to get used to and adjust to everything that;s going on around him. I also agree that he does act very sexist throughout the book but I understand cause he's probably confused and doesn't know what to think about the whole situation.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the novel, Genly had very sexist connotations towards the gethenian people. Genly can only describe each of them as either masculine of feminine because he does not know any other way to describe them. Gethenians are all considered equals because gender does not classify them; by either what they do, what they can be, what they can achieve, etc. I enjoyed knowing that they were gender-less. Genly's ignorance made it difficult for him to perceive it any other way. In our society we are used to being classified, for example to be a man means to be considered masculine and to be a women means to be considered feminine. Genly is just not used to realizing that there's no such thing as gender unless they are in kemmer.
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