Representation Of The Organic Society In The Dispossessed

Ursula Le Guin(1929-2018)is one of the most prominent American writers of contemporary science fiction.Often by putting nature and society,or citizens and government into contrary condition by exaggerating ways,her works explores how a certain society‘s form exists and the meaning of such existence.Through comparing the two planets of Urras and Anarres,which possess some characters of the ―organic society‖,Le Guin‘s representative novel The Dispossessed embodies her viewpoint on an organic society.The novel has been studied in the West as well as in China mostly from such topics as anarchism,utopia and Taoist thought.In the light of the Marxist theory of social organism,this thesis studies the construction of the organic society in the novel.Karl Marx‘s concept of ―social organism‖ proposed in The Poverty of Philosophy(1847)holds that human society should be an organic integration in which coexistence,interdependence and harmonious development happen among the human as social subjects,society and nature.The main part of this thesis is composed of three chapters that respectively expound from three aspects: the interpersonal organic connection,the mutual progress of individual and society,and the harmonious symbiosis of human and nature.The first chapter mainly focuses on the cooperative and mutual-assistant relationship among people in an organic society.People of Anarres advocate―brotherhood‖,taking solidarity and mutual aid as principles to embody close interpersonal relationship.Through the description of ideal partnership between the protagonist Shevek and his wife Takver,the novel demonstrates an ideal interpersonal relationship in an organic society,that is,on the basis of close interpersonal relationship,the ideal interpersonal relationship allows individual‘s individuality to be fully exerted,and allows people to develop concertedly and cooperatively.The second chapter discusses the mutual progress of individual and society in an organic society.As Anarres is described as an ―ambiguous utopia‖ in the novel,the Anarresti(Anarres‘s)society,ridding itself of the autocratic rule of its mother planet Urras,practices―anarchism‖ for which ―society was the individual‖,every individual keeps commitments and severe self-discipline to make progress together with their own society.Mutual contribution and cooperative development happen in such an organic society.The third chapter discusses the harmonious symbiosis of human and nature.Good natural condition guarantees the ideal material condition of the organic society.The abundant natural resource makes Urras the origin of civilization,and has the potential of becoming a stable home where the society develops organically and people live a happy life.Meanwhile,the ―ecological conscience‖ and organic economy structure in Anarres,i.e.the perspective of sustainable development of production and consumption ensures the organic balance between the society and nature.Le Guin‘s novel The Dispossessed displays the developing thread of the protagonist Shevek‘s ―voyage to return‖ journey from Anarres to its mother planet Urras and finally returns to Anarres.With this developing thread and the protagonist Shevek as the ―line‖,readers are able to witness the possibility of becoming an organic society exists in two societies through complementarity of each other.Also,it further poses a deeper thinking of relationship of mutual connection of man and man,of individual and society and of human and nature,reflecting Le Guin‘s description of development of utopian society,especially her thought on problems in reality concerning the relationship between government and citizens,humankind‘s solidarity at the process of society‘s development.The novel constructs an organic society of joint development and harmonious symbiosis,reflects Le Guin‘s good wish of establishing a better and new society,and develops the imagination of the face of utopian world.