It seems that a crucial part of LeGuin’s work is the unresolved, or thoroughly undramatic, ending. The best example of this would be City of Illusions, where the main character manages to resist the government’s numerous attempts to brainwash him, discovers his true identity and returns to his homeworld to try to persuade his people to destroy the totalitarian regime on Earth. This is an example of a good unresolved ending: the point isn’t whether he succeeds, the point is that he made the decision to act.
Then take The Tombs of Atuan, the second volume of the Earthsea trilogy. The book can be divided into two parts. Part 1: Arha’s life sucks. Part 2: Arha walks around in the dark with Ged. There is hardly any plot at all. The climax involves the temple – her only home up until that point – collapsing. I think it would have been nice to see a little confrontation between Arha and her former captors (ahem…guardians), but that doesn’t seem to be part of LeGuin’s agenda. The important thing for Arha is her decision to help Ged; the reward is Ged revealing her true name and restoring her identity. And once again, we’re given a picture of Arha’s possible future, but we don’t see her actually accomplishing it. The story ends with her sailing off with Ged.
The unresolved ending fits well with her Taoist themes. Taoism, at least what I’ve seen so far, is very circular. Life is a constant cycle of setting out and returning. By closing her stories with a new beginning, she completes the circle.
Hmm. Good point. I mostly just know the Earthsea cycle, but the ending of *Tehanu* is a good bit more conclusive, isn’t it?
I haven’t finished Tehanu yet. I’ll get back to you as soon as I do…hopefully that will be very soon
I find it the most troubling of the series. There’s something about the narration in that one that keeps more more off-kilter than the others. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but then I’ve never tried to write about the Earthsea novels.
I suppose Tehanu is a little more chaotic than the other Earthsea novels. The previous three had a clear path of character development – Wizard was about Ged chasing down his gebbeth and rising above his reckless behavior, Tombs was about Arha/Tenar escaping her dark prison of power, and Farthest Shore was about Arren accepting his own death. In Tehanu, it seems like everyone’s starting over. Ged has to learn how to live life as a normal man now that his power is gone; Tenar has to find a new place for herself now that she’s a widow and her children are grown. And they both have to deal with people who can’t accept who they are. The wizards on Roke refuse to accept that Ged is no longer a mage, and misogynistic wizards like Aspen refuse to accept that people like Tenar and scarred Therru have a power beyond their own.
I would still argue that the ending of Tehanu leaves a lot unresolved, or at least without explicit answers. After Therru reveals herself as a dragonlord and calls Kalessin to save Tenar and Ged, we’re left to assume that she’s the “woman on Gont” referred to in the prophecies on Roke. But we never find out how the wizards on Roke deal with this – if they figure it out at all. Ogion and Kalessin both say Therru has a great destiny ahead of her, but we never learn what it is – whether it’s to become the first female Archmange, to reforge the bonds between humans and dragons, or to learn the secrets of “women’s magic” – the deep-rooted power viewed with misunderstanding and contempt by male wizards.
For Therru, Tehanu is about learning to rise above her fears and her scars. But her story doesn’t end there. She still has an entire lifetime to fulfill the prophecies of Ogion and Kalessin. So I believe Tehanu, like many of LeGuin’s novels, closes with a new beginning.