Theme Of Ambiguity In The Left Hand Of Darkness

After reading the book, The Other Side, the author uses symbolism, tone, and he wrote it to an audience. The book is based on racism, today we may not know about it, and it still goes on today. Whites and blacks have both been against each other until one very powerful leader stopped racism. The book has lots of symbolism related to racism.

When readers analyze and examine the main points of a piece of writing, they usually focus on a few key assets in order to fully comprehend the story. In The Other Side, a book about the boundaries of segregation told from the perspective of a little colored girl, there are many elements shown throughout the book. The qualities represented most importantly, are the tone, audience, and symbolism.

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

In a true-story about more suffering and terror one could ever even attempt to imagine, one man tells his story about learning that just because you’re breathing doesn’t mean you’re living. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses symbolism to reveal that physical death is not the only way to die.

In “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin, we have a world like no other. The reader gets the picture of this first hand from the writer herself in her introduction. She prepares us for a world that not only expands our imagination, but that of our religious and social beliefs themselves with an androgynous world with no war. This world is cold and has its own political as well as natural dangers in of itself.

In society, heterosexuality is a principal method of organizing institutions and regulating individual behavior. A culture based on ideas of heterosexuality values relationships that are between men and women; as a result, sexual contact occurring between same sex individuals is seen as deviant and labeled as homosexual. In her book, Ward explains how straight white men can have sex with other white men while retaining their heterosexuality in addition to gaining a masculine appeal. Ingraham and Namaste’s discussion of heteronormativity, heterogenders, and supplementarity aids in understanding why straight white men are not labeled as homosexual and how this functions to reproduce inequalities based on race, gender, and sexuality.

In “The Myth of Homosexuality” by Christine Downing, there is the discussion of homosexuality and its meaning over the years. Downing begins the article by stating how a myth has classified women-on-women and men-on-men relationships to fall under the same term of homosexuality, but there is much deeper understanding to it than that. The classification under one word has caused a lot of shaping concerning how they are viewed or how they view themselves. In order to look past the surface of what defines the myth, Downing states that we must start with the culture’s myth and it’s origin.

Ursula K Le Guin once stated that “I am a man. Now you may think I’ve made some kind of silly mistake about gender, or maybe that I’m trying to fool you, because my first name ends in a, and I own three bras, and I’ve been pregnant five times, and other things like that that you might have noticed, little details” (The Wave In the Mind pg 3) discloses that no matter what “role” is placed on a gender, it is paramount to preserve equality and acceptance. In most cases, the male gender is considered to be the more dominant and superior sex when compared to the female gender, which is speculated to be a less powerful and more sensitive sex. Le Guin uses gender to immensely contribute to this entire novel as she endeavors to display to readers that a world could indeed thrive when free from gender roles. In the science- fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin brilliantly represents gender equality and a genderless society that exists on planet Gethen.

The realism movement of the late nineteenth century produced works in literature that were marked by reduced sentimentality and increased objectivity. The goal was to let details tell the story, and remove noticeable bias of the author through scientific and detailed descriptions. While this form of storytelling undoubtedly is most accurate, it creates difficulties for authors to incorporate their themes into the story. This resulted in an increase in symbolism in realist works. The objects and descriptions within the story are the author’s vehicle for displaying the values and themes of the work. Light and darkness are symbols commonly used in literature, and have held specific symbolic

     Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is a novel about a man named Marlow and his journey into the depths of the African Congo. Marlow is in search of a man named Kurtz, an ivory trader. Though Marlow?s physical journey seems rather simple, it takes him further into his own heart and soul than into the Congo. The setting, symbols and characters each contain light and dark images, these images shape the central theme of the novel.

On one hand, Gogol discusses the seemingly meaningless life and death of a government employee in 19th century Russia as he purchases and loses an overcoat, while on the other Kafka’s protagonist deals with surrealism as he attempts to adapt to his mysteriously transformed body. However, both authors use their protagonists’ personalities and their relationships with the people around them to portray how their economic situations shape their lives. More specifically, both Gogol and Kafka argue that money provides the characters with confidence, power, and masculinity. By examining Akaky’s transformation as he purchases his new overcoat, how Gregor makes decisions as a human, and how both characters treat fictional women, one can see that examining these two stories together allows one to see how the above characteristic traits pervade all aspects of life.

There is constantly cessation why women and men cohabitate, nurture, desire, and endure. Many shrug the similarities and differences to the side due to the complex nature that is involved in understanding the progression. Since the beginning of time, according to the bible, man was placed as the dominant sex, fending for the families well being. The woman has tended to the important jobs around the homestead as situations arose. Often in society, one will find himself in a battle depending on the views of the receiving recipients. Following is a dialogue explaining a safe and metro sexual view as a general whole.

In the book, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad we are introduced to the concept of light and dark as they relate to the people of Africa and the people of Europe. In the beginning of the book the intro gives an insight into the journey that the main character, Marlow, is about to embark on. Conrad symbolically introduces the sun setting on the river as Marlow enters the mouth of the Thames. Conrad reveals this allegory by indicating that Marlow is about to enter a dark place morally, and physically as a reference to the Negro people of Africa. Light and dark are used by Conrad to represent morality and immorality.

Gender segregation is still common in the Middle East and both genders are expected to fulfill their designated roles within society. There is a lot of pressure for both genders to marry and to not do so is considered “social disaster”. Arranged marriages are not uncommon, especially among the more traditional families (Whitaker) and in this relationship, men are generally considered the “active” partners while their wives are the “passive” partners (Tolino 5). These ideas are prominent throughout society in the Middle East and create problems for individuals who do not conform to their assigned roles, specifically members of the LGBT community. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, although all gender and “sexual minorities” are considered part of this community (Human Rights Watch 69). LGBT individuals face struggles all around the world, but their problems are more pronounced in the Middle East, where the concept of homosexuality is vastly different than in the West. People in the Middle East generally view homosexuality as a “Western invention” and there is no clear distinction between “sex” and “gender”. The classification of an individual as “gay” does not always relate to “a physical act with someone of the same gender”. A male could be considered “gay” simply for not conforming to gender roles or acting feminine (Simmons 1). In the Middle East, members of the LGBT community face extreme inequality, primarily in the form of homophobic laws with

Imogen’s alter ego of Fidele allows her to experience new privileges, such as joining a hunt, that she was previously denied because she was a woman, demonstrating a clear discrimination based on gender (III.IV.107). Though crossdressing, Imogen is able to evade social gender rules, something which those in power neither supported nor encouraged (Baker 313).