The Dispossessed

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1974

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-13

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

This chapter resumes Shevek’s journey to Abbenay, where he sees the Port for the first time. We learn that “decentralization had been an essential element in Odo’s plans,”but it is inevitable in a connected society (96). Shevek soon learns that Abbenay, Anarres’ de facto center, concentrates power in the very ways Odo hoped to avoid. His new mentor, Sabul, has power over him. Shevek begins to learn Urrasti so that he can read physics texts; in doing so, he learns that most of Sabul’s work is actually merely translation, not innovation. Sabul then sends Shevek’s commentary on Atro’s physics to Urras without Shevek’s knowledge. Shevek is at first surprised to learn that such an exchange is even possible given the two planets’ trade accords; he is also offended that Sabul has attached his name as co-author to Shevek’s work. In addition, Sabul wants him to continue to work in an area of physics that does not interest him, abandoning his passion for simultaneity theory. He realizes that his career “depend[s] on the continuance of a fundamental unadmitted profit contract…and exploitative relationship” with Sabul (117). Contemplating this injustice, he falls ill and is put in a medical ward, where his mother, Rulag, visits him and offers him help in his career. He rejects her overtures.

Chapter 5 Summary

Shevek ends his tour of Urras and begins to give lectures and conduct research. Buying clothes for his life as a professor, he is shocked by the “nightmare street” that is the city of Nio’s main shopping district, and by the separation between artisans and their goods (132). During a break from classes, he has a conversation with Chifoilsk, a colleague from the State of Thu. Chifoilsk asks him if he realized that he’s “been bought,” and urges him to leave A-Io for Thu (135). He tells him that Pae is spying on him, that he is under surveillance, and that his ideas will not be allowed to circulate amongst the workers, those hidden from him in the shopping district—he will be kept in the university amongst the monied class. Shevek tells him that he “want[s] free exchange between Urras and Anarres,” and that he plans to work towards that goal in A-Io (138). Soon after, he learns that Chif has been sent back to Thu. With Atro, he discusses his current work on simultaneity theory. Atro says he has a duty to Cetians—the race from Urras and Anarres—and that he hopes he will not share his discoveries with alien races. Realizing his isolation, Shevek asks his colleagues to show him their real lives, and he visits Oiie’s family home in Amoeno. He explains the socialist structure of his society to Oiie’s children. After meeting their pet otter, he misses his partner, Takver, an animal lover.

Chapter 6 Summary

In Anarres, Shevek recovers, and befriends his neighbor. He endeavors to end his period of isolation and to join committees, meetings, and other groups. He also wishes to teach a class, but Sabul prevents him from doing so. Feeling that “nothing he [does is] meaningful,” he despairs (161). However, when he runs into his old friend Bedap, his spirits brighten. Bedap is a heretic in his belief that Anarres has developed a power structure worse than government: new ideas are rejected because individuals adhere strictly to public opinion, which Bedap goes on to call “the unadmittable, unadmissible government that rules Odinian society” (165). Shevek counters that poverty rather than society frustrates innovation on Anarres. In response, Bedap reveals that their friend Tirin has been put in an asylum against his will after receiving public criticism for a play he wrote. Shevek admires Bedap’s “freedom of mind […] though he hate[s] its expression” (173). Shevek discovers that, like Bedap, he is a revolutionary; however, unlike Bedap, he believes that Odo’s teachings already provide the resources for thinking through the problems in their society. Craving companionship, he meets Takver, and the two agree to become lifelong partners.

Chapters 4-6 Analysis

These chapters delve further into childrearing on Anarres, and suggest it may be one of the utopian community’s weaker systems. While the circumstances around Rulag leaving her family are vague in the opening chapters, these chapters indicate that monogamous couples are often split up on work assignments. Shevek’s grief at her visit suggests the lasting pain that the absence of an “affectional bond” can have on a child. Shevek’s earlier assertion that suffering is the common experience that ties mankind together thus seems based on his own childhood trauma. They also raise questions about how Takver and Shevek will fare in their own partnership.

These chapters increasingly compare the structure of Urras and Anarres (specifically the State of A-Io). Urrasti ideas of superiority and inferiority are bolstered by capitalism and play out in gender dynamics that mark women as inferior to men. They also affect the way citizens of A-Io view race. We learn that, although Shevek is in one sense an alien—he comes from Urras’ moon—he is still considered a member of the Cetian race. In an increasingly interplanetary, interspecies universe, Cetians, including Atro, view their race as superior to other alien species. Part of the drive towards innovation, including Shevek’s recruitment to the university, is to prove the superiority of that race and to continue to thrive economically.

As he learns more about the structure of Urras and the importance of “superiority” as a concept, Shevek is increasingly critical of the capitalism he observes. He is shocked that stores selling shoes, clothing, and other items are not staffed by their craftspeople; their labor is hidden from the consumers who purchase these items. On Anarres, decentralization and poverty both guarantee that individuals go to artisans for goods, and take only what they need; the realities of capitalism are a “nightmare” to him. The slurs the Anarresti have for the Urrasti—“egoizers,” “profiteers”—are proven true as he encounters the riches of the markets, with goods that cost a year of a family’s living wage.