Wednesday, January 13, 2016

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?

Genly Ai struggles to understand Gethenians as they see themselves because of how different the place is and the society in Winter. For example, Genly isn't too familiar with the genders of the Gethanians since it is difficult to determine if a person is a male or a female and since they all look the same. Also the kemmering that they have set up is confusing. Kemmering is like a phrase used to say that a Gethan is sexually active. They settle down as a male or female and wait til it's over. Which is totally different from how people are on Earth because we know what gender we are and what race we are. Another thing that is different from people on Earth to the Gethenians on Winter that Genly can't really understand is that the Gethanians don't have war. He sees these the Gethenians as aliens when the Gethanians see Genly as an alien because of how different they are and how he stands out. This all makes it hard for Gently to talk to the Gethanians and for the Gethanians to talk to Gently because they don't understand each other.

1 comment:

  1. You bring up a good point when you mentioned that Genly sees the Gethenians as the abnormality, while Gethenians think of Genly in the same light. It's all about perspective in this situation. Because the Gethenians and Genly have different perspectives, it is hard for them to understand each other. They can't reconcile their view of the world with somebody else's. Anyways, good post!

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