A Wizard of Earthsea

Chapters 1-2

Reading Check

1. Magic mist/fog (Chapter 1)

2. Language/names (Chapter 1)

3. Summon the dead (Chapter 2)

4. It is called Shadow (Chapter 2)

5. Releasing the shadow (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. Ged is young, ignorant, arrogant, power-hungry, and impatient, whereas Ogion is older, wise, humble, unambitious, and patient, even when Ged does not appreciate his wisdom. Ogion has what Ged lacks. (Chapter 2)

2. Ogion knows The Limits and Responsibilities of Power and thus uses it sparingly. (Chapter 2)

3. Ged wants power, but he does not know how to use it wisely. He is often caught between his respect for Ogion’s humility and his own pride. (Various chapters)

Chapters 3-4

Reading Check

1. Himself/his pride (Various chapters)

2. The herald (Various chapters)

3. A mentor (Various chapters)

4. The Limits and Responsibilities of Power (Chapter 4)

Short Answer

1. The Master Changer is excited to have such a quick student and gives Ged more advanced materials because he sees in Ged potential for greatness, whereas the Master Summoner sees Ged’s desire, pride, and lack of discipline as dangerous and limits his access to advanced teachings. (Chapter 3)

2. Jesper’s challenge is like the challenge made by the daughter of Rei Albi in that both characters leverage Ged’s pride and bend him to their own wills, leading Ged to overstep his power and unleash the shadow. Jesper’s challenge has deeper consequences because Ged is more powerful, and each challenge serves to highlight Ged’s lack of agency over his own pride and desires. (Chapter 4)

3. After his brush with the shadow, Ged becomes physically weakened due to the injury and overuse of power. He is ashamed because his prideful actions resulted in Nemmerle’s death. As his learning slows and he is filled with remorse, he learns some humility. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 5-6

Reading Check

1. Their skills (Chapter 5)

2. Licking his hand (Chapter 5)

3. Skiord challenges him (Chapter 6)

4. The wards against evil (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. Because he is willing to accept a lowly station and to do everyday work often tasked to servants and slaves, Ged displays true humility, showing that he has at last let go of his pride. (Chapters 5-6)

2. All of Ged’s mistakes with the shadow stem from his overreach of power. Though he does not act to resurrect Pechvarry’s dying child out of arrogance and pride as he did with the lord’s daughter and Jesper, he still chooses a path that ignores limits and upsets the equilibrium, giving the shadow a clear bridge to leave the land of the dead and enter the world. (Chapter 5)

3. Though Yevaud vows that he can tell Ged the name of the shadow, he refuses that which would help him most in favor of bargaining to protect the people of Low Torning. By putting others before himself, he shows responsibility, and by using his power without personal gain, he shows he has learned to limit his desires. (Chapter 5)

Chapters 7-8

Reading Check

1. The shapeshifter/temptress (Chapter 7)

2. Use his power (Chapter 7)

3. Enslave him (Chapter 7)

4. Face it/seek the source (Chapter 8)

Short Answer

1. Ged shows that he has finally learned The Limits and Responsibilities of Power and The Importance and Power of Agency when he refuses to use the stone of Terrenon, claiming that any knowledge it might give him would not really save him from the shadow, but might instead allow the shadow to take hold of him after he became slave to the stone’s will. Overuse and misuse of power lead to ruin. (Chapter 7)

2. Ged’s knowledge of the Equilibrium and The Limits and Responsibilities of Power help him overcome temptation and avoid being used to work the stone’s evil desires. (Chapter 7)

3. Ged notices that the trick to lure him into a hidden shoal was exactly like the trick he played in Ten Alders when he used mist to lure the Kargs off the cliff. Because the shadow must have been there to know the trick, the shadow must be someone very close to Ged—someone who knows him from childhood, before he was a wizard. This foreshadows the shadow’s true identity. (Chapter 8)

Chapters 9-10

Reading Check

1. Cured his cataracts (Chapter 9)

2. The shadow (Chapter 9)

3. A mentor (Chapter 9)

4. Her truename, meaning Minnow (Chapter 10)

5. Naming it (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Vetch was there at the beginning when the shadow was let loose, so he might be needed to find the source. Also, if Ged is overcome by the shadow, he must make sure Ged does not return to the archipelago to work the shadow’s evils on the world using Ged’s body and powers. (Chapter 9)

2. Ged reveals the irony that as a student, when he had all the time in the world to learn and grow and do things the right way, he was in too much of a hurry to get past the learning, and now that he has the wisdom and patience to learn and grow and do things the right way, he has no time left to do it. (Chapter 10)

3. Ged confronts the shadow in the deep ocean, in open waters, away from the archipelago, in a place that is as nameless, unknown, and remote as the shadow and the place of darkness from which it first emerged. (Chapter 10)

4. Instead of killing, trapping, or destroying the shadow the way the knight hero slays a dragon or a sorcerer banishes a rival, Ged instead reaches out a hand and pulls the shadow into himself, reuniting with a part of himself he had lost and making himself a whole being. It is not punitive or violent. In taking the shadow into himself, he assumes responsibility for it and the mistakes they committed together, righting a wrong with unity rather than destruction and separation. (Chapter 10)