LeGuin’s Message to Young People in Her Book, A Wizard of Earthsea

by: Ursula K. Le Guin

Genre: Magical Fantasy

Publisher: Clarion Books

Publication Date: 1968

272 or 294 pages (depends)

ISBN-10: 0547722028

ISBN-13: 978-0547722023

Available at most bookstores and libraries

A deep dive into LeGuin's Earthsea, an analysis

by Christina Francine

LeGuin implies maturity means more than achieving power. Maturity also means being conscious of decision choices and then being responsible for them. LeGuin shows this through her young character Sparrowhawk, who has a great gift of magical capability.  He eventually learns of his power around the age of thirteen. Sparrowhawk wants to use it too and learn of its depth, yet he is afraid because he doesn’t know how to use it. Since he does not have past results to go by, he cannot be conscious of making responsible decisions. Through the guidance of seasoned mages and through numerous experiences, Sparrowhawk eventually gains consciousness. A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming-of-age tale (meant as a message for young readers), and throughout LeGuin’s book, she sends a series of messages. The two largest are: maturity means consciousness as well as responsibility, and gaining them takes time.

In the beginning, Sparrowhawk was innocent of his potential. He is not aware of his power capacity. LeGuin displays this when dangerous warriors, named Kargs, ride into the unsuspecting village where Sparrowhawk lives. They come to destroy its inhabitants. For the first time in his life, Sparrowhawk (Duny at the time, and later Ged), works magic impressively enough to save his people. When a great wizard explains afterwards that the boy is not a “Common man” (15) and offers to take Ged as an apprentice, the boy becomes conscious of his power capacity. This is how LeGuin sets up her tale in comparison to when young people first become aware of their power.

When Sparrowhawk, now known as Ged, begins his apprenticeship with the great wizard, Ogion, he believes “He would enter at once into the mystery and mastery of power” (17). He is disappointed, however, because Ogion answers his question of “When will my apprenticeship begin” (18) with “It has begun” (18). Ged is confused; he does not believe the wizard has taught him anything yet. To this, Ogion replies, “You haven’t found out what I am teaching” (18). This displays how young people believe learning to use power is a matter of simplicity, as when learning a secret color or code. Ogion’s point is that understanding requires experience and patience. LeGuin’s first message to young readers is that learning subtleties and one’s purpose must come first and involve time.

A girl approaches Ged one day asking him about his power, for she admires the abilities of Mages. Ged is proud and shares what he has done so far, which is little. To impress the girl, Ged leads her to believe his powers are great. He says he can call the spirits of the dead, although he does not really know if he can or not. The girl asks him about more of his abilities. This makes Ged feel mocked. When she further pushes Ged by challenging his bravery, due to how young he is, Ged decides to prove himself.  He does this by attempting a powerful spell from Ogion’s Lore-book without the wizard’s permission. This results in Ged’s summoning a growing horror inside him that “Seemed to hold him to his chair” (24). This makes him cold, and he sees “Something crouching beside the closed door, a shapeless clot of a shadow darker than the darkness” (24) that whispers to him.  LeGuin makes a few points here. She displays how peer pressure, combined with pride, makes young people do dangerous things. They do not have past experiences as a guide to help them to be conscious of what kind of decision they are making. They also do not have the patience to wait for the experiences. This lack of patience combined with pressure and pride leads young people to dangerous situations.  This is LeGuin’s second message to her young readers.

Ogion asks Ged if he wants to stay or go to Roke Island where the high arts are taught. This begins Ged’s training for responsibility. He realizes he needs more than power only. He wants to stay with Ogion, go through the forest with him, and learn how to be silent, but another desire burns deeper. Ged wants glory as soon as possible. Ged’s decision is shown when LeGuin writes, “Ogion’s seemed a long road towards mastery, a slow bypath to follow” (26), and when Ged tells Ogion, “Master, I will go to Roke” (26), Ogion does not attempt to stop Sparrowhawk. He tells him, “Any craft you undertake to learn you will learn; your power is great. Greater than your pride” (26). LeGuin’s readers see how even when young people realize power is more than a simple code and dangerous too, they are still impatient. They also receive unspoken messages from Ogion’s encouragement to Ged, which goes something like, ‘Your power is great, and you will learn no matter how impatient youth makes you,’ and ‘Because your power is great, as well as your pride, you will probably have to learn the hard way.’ These make up LeGuin’s third message.

Again, LeGuin portrays peer pressure as a thing that often leads young people astray. She uses this again to show how important what young people’s peers think of them is. When Ged makes it to Roke and meets another young man, Jasper, who questions the depth of Ged’s power. Ged has not learned enough from his episode back at Ogion’s under the pressure of the young girl. Jasper mocked Ged, which causes him to swear that he would prove himself to Jasper and everyone else. Ged is confident that Ogion’s statement is true, that “He would be the greatest wizard of Gont” (46). Ged also meets another young man, Vetch, whom he forms a friendship with. LeGuin sends a message about a skill that is powerful by way of Vetch. She writes “Yet a greater, unlearned skill he possessed, which was the art of kindness” (45). LeGuin wants readers to know how important these two young men are in Ged’s life. She wants readers to know how deeply these two types of people affect them. Jasper causes Ged to feel envy and to work hard because the two view each other as competition. Competition can be helpful in learning, but dangerous as well. Vetch causes Ged to be aware of a great power called kindness. Kindness does not require magic words or potions and helps with strength.  These make up LeGuin’s fourth message.

Ged is on his way to learning. His teachers guide him in mastery of spells, illusion, wind bringing, healing, and finding and binding. Ged cannot forget about the episode using Ogion’s lore-book. Those phrases from the spell he spoke taught him something.  Subconsciously, he learned an important lesson that he refuses to confront. The lesson has been learned deeper than those learned at Roke. Ged remembers the fear and darkness, but unfortunately comforts himself by thinking, they were merely “The shadows of his ignorance. The more he learned, the less he would have to fear, until finally in his full power as Wizard he needed fear nothing in the world” (60-61). Ged does not understand.  From this, young readers discover that lessons learned with emotion are learned better, and explaining away one’s weakness and fear using pride means not being conscious.  These make up LeGuin’s fifth message.

Ged’s failure to learn from his fear and from a mistake causes him to need a harsher lesson. His missed chance for the beginning of consciousness which allows pride to take over. This harsher lesson reminds readers of Ogion’s message that Ged needs to learn the hard way because his pride is as great as his power. This harsher lesson comes when he and Jasper attempt to outdo each other. Both want to prove their power is greater.  When Jasper mocks him, Ged claims to be able to summon up a spirit from the dead.  This takes readers back to Ged’s fear, caused by the shadow at Ogion’s. Again, LeGuin drives her message of how emotion and experience teach deeper, long-lasting lessons.  Although it had been two or more years ago, and he had read them one time, Ged remembered the Summoning spell in Ogion’s lore-book. When Ged completed his spell, a “Lump of shadow clung to Ged, tearing at his flesh,” and “He was bound, unable to move” (67), he began his journey toward consciousness. This is a turning point for Ged and the story. Ged will finally see and understand a lesson that leads him toward maturity.  He now will have a result to examine. One involves emotion, action, and consequence.  Ged will pay dearly for this lesson, however. He almost dies. He also finds the Shadow he summoned will stay with him forever, waiting to possess him.  Archmage Gesher tells him, “You must stay here until you gain strength and wisdom enough to defend yourself from it” (72). Now, Ged cannot be free. He has limited himself. LeGuin demonstrates her sixth message with Ged’s first true lesson, of which he is quite aware.

After his friend, Vetch, comes to see him before leaving Roke. Now at eighteen, Ged begins to reflect on who he is and where he came from. He listens better to his teachers too. When he asks for help from Master Summoner, Ged hears the heavy truth.  To move ahead, Ged must deal with the result of what he did. Master Summoner cannot undo the results, but he can offer wisdom. He says, “The truth is that as a man’s real power grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do. . .” (78). LeGuin offers her young readers insight on how, when stripped of everyone’s help and there is only oneself and results, real power begins to grow. She also implies that when you have nothing else, it is sheer willpower that drives a person. This is where people find out what they’re made of and pass the ultimate test – the test one puts oneself through. Ged is conscious of a result, and now he must be responsible for that decision; however, he does not understand Mage’s message. This is LeGuin’s seventh message.

Eventually, Ged leaves Roke and comes to the island of Pendor. This is the beginning of his attempt to run away from his problem; away from the result of his decision. He has learned the depth of his power and consciousness of the result of a decision, but he has not attained the ability to be responsible for them. He is still afraid to confront what he did. In Pendor, the villagers have a problem with dragons. They kill and eat the villagers. Although Ged is running, he volunteered for the job at Pendor as a wizard. The Archmage had told Ged on the day he made him a wizard, “No fame, no wealth, maybe no risk. Will you go?” (84). LeGuin is beginning to drive at her main message to her readers using a small one here. Young readers may not know it, nor does Ged: True greatness often comes without bells and whistles, without the title, and sometimes without excitement. This is LeGuin’s eighth message to her young readers.

LeGuin trusts at this point that her readers have started to understand and leans into it with her story. After Ged spoke the dragon’s name on the island of Pendor, and received the dragon’s word that he and the other dragons would bother the islanders no more, Ged leaves. He thinks about what the dragon said, “I know what alone can save you.  There is a horror that follows you.  I will tell you its name” (100). When Ged ignores his need and places his mission for the islanders above his own, he shows growth toward responsibility. He is beginning what Master Summoner said earlier about a person gaining real power from choosing nothing, and “does only and wholly what he must do” (78). Instead of reveling in how the islanders phrased his deed and now call him dragon master, Ged does not seem at all impressed with himself.  He received a title and excitement from others but is not proud. Ged knows he has done only what he was trained to do using the power given to him by birth. Readers may begin to understand a little of LeGuin’s message at this point; greatness comes when responsibility and others are put before self.  This is her ninth message.

LeGuin has set up her readers. Her main character and readers are ready for the last few steps in gaining maturity. She writes that Ged continues to run, encountering adventures along the way. His heart is heavy, however, and he cannot enjoy anything except the simple pleasures. One day, he finds himself in the village of East Reach, where he runs into his old friend from Roke, Vetch. Ged has learned much at this point, yet he has not thus far learned the biggest lesson of all. LeGuin knows her reader’s attention is hers now, and so she takes her time and adds more coaching. In taking her time, her stance starts to materialize. This is: true understanding, consciousness, responsibility, and maturity cannot be hurried. LeGuin includes how good friendship weakens difficult lessons’ sting and aids in vision. LeGuin demonstrates this while Ged continues to run.    Vetch informs Ged that he had seen him “three days ago, or an imitation of you. I called and got no answer” (168-169). LeGuin reveals a big clue to readers with Vetch’s words about the shadow that taunts Ged but does not come out and say it. Instead, she has Vetch offer to go on the journey with Ged. LeGuin’s tenth message is that gaining maturity takes a long time and cannot be hurried. At the same time, she adds that friendship not only eases the sting of the journey but may aid in reaching the destination.

As LeGuin draws near to providing her character and readers release, Ged turns to chasing instead of running. He is after the shadow, now. He and Vetch eventually grow restless. The world about them at sea grows dark; the “waves heaved up and down” before “the wind grew faint and the swells diminished” (191). LeGuin seems to allude to holding one’s breath for what is about to happen. The shadow and Ged confront each other.  Finally, Ged understood and spoke the shadow’s name, knowing he at last “held the thing’s life in his keeping” (75). Likewise, the shadow spoke to him. Both spoke the name, “Ged,” and now “were one voice” (294). The final lesson comes from what Mage Gensher told Ged earlier in the book, and with LeGuin’s words at the end. These are “It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of your ignorance” (72) and ‘he (Ged) had made himself whole:  a man who knew his whole true self” (196). LeGuin implies that power is more difficult and prolonged than young readers think. Through her character, LeGuin shows how Ged finally faced the result of his decision. He faced the most difficult thing in life that kept him from attaining power – himself. LeGuin’s story may aid young readers in their journey to power – to maturity. Through Sparrowhawk, they learn that maturity means being conscious of self, and that knowing takes time.

Works Cited

LeGuin, Ursula K. A Wizard of Earthsea.  New York: Bantam Spectra, 1968: 15-294.