FF Tuesday October 25

In Today’s class we began by comparing other stories like the “Hobbit” to “Wizard of Earthsea.” In the Hobbit, the author creates a type of detailed geography, which includes maps and has a “circular” journey just like Ursula K. Le Guin. In “A Wizard of Earthsea”, Ged is much like Bilbo from the “Hobbit”, both are the main characters in the story who go through a personal journey. An early significant moment for Ged is when he saves his town by creating a cloud of fog over the warriors so they could not see the villagers. He looked down on himself and noted that he wasn’t strong enough as he looked at his skinny arms and while the townspeople were making weapons. However, this experience of really using his magic for the first time made him realize his power’s potential. Throughout the stories, Ged and Bilbo gain confidence as they mature from the local roots (Ged: goathearder Bilbo: homebody hobbit) to being well known. Ogion is a foil to Gandalf who both serve as wise wizards and mentor figures.

We also wrote about how Ged changes over the course of the novel because of his experience with his victory in Gont (as mentioned before), his encounter with the Shadow, and through his interaction with the Dragon of Pendor. From these incidents he learns that his powers are something to be taken seriously and needs control as well as needs to be taught how to use them properly. It also made him more careful and less arrogant, displaying his willpower, responsibility and ultimately shapes his character.

Later we discussed in groups the role of education in the book, particularly what Ged learns from Ogion. First of all, Wizard wouldn’t be good wizards without it. Ogion is Ged “yoda” or “Mr. Miogi” because he is teaching him the virtues of patience and not explicitly teaching magic. This is why Ged decides to go to school in Roke, to really learn magic.

Lastly, we conversed about some of the hallmarks of Earthsea’s “secondary world” to Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Lewis’s Narnia. Ursula K. Le Guin doesn’t have two world’s like Narnia and is not filled with mystical creatures. He uses maps in his books like the Hobbit, however, he does not go into detail about the surrounding and history. Theories and stories are mentioned but are not explain in detail like in Tolkien’s book.

8 A.M Class

During class today, we discussed the book “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin. We were given questions to write about and discuss from the book and also to compare the book to The Hobbit, which we had just finished reading about in class last week. Last week, we discussed how Bilbo became this heroic character in the end and found attributes in himself that he would have never discovered without being forced to go on this quest. This week we compared Ged and Bilbo and found that they are both very different in the sense that Ged willingly goes on this adventure while Bilbo is forced into this.

Bilbo and Ged differ in many ways such as characteristics and the way that they deal with the same type of circumstances. Bilbo at first is humble, happy, and keeps to himself. When we first meet Ged, we know him to be this young, very powerful wizard who doesn’t know how to use his powers yet. As both characters progress throughout the novel we see them change, Bilbo becomes cleverer when he find the ring and Ged has a very humbling trip on the Shadow. Another main part in the books that we discussed was when Bilbo was faced to take on the spiders and Ged was faced with the dragon. We see that Bilbo is starting to become more clever and confident when he beats the spiders while Ged becomes less prideful.

Then we went on to review discussions questions where we were asked to compare and contrast Narnia, Middle Earth, and Earthsea. In Narnia, it is seen as like nebulas. People argued in the class that they felt it was better described and could be more believable than Earthsea because you could actually follow along in the text what was going on. Earthsea showed maps just like Middle Earth but it gave no description about the characters or background and that was another reason argued about why it was hard to follow. Other similarities between Middle Earth and Earthsea where that they both had no connection to the human world and by just jumping into the secondary world it become a lot more realistic. Another thing was that in discussion, we found that Earthsea had no hierarchy like the other books had and if it did it did not take much importance to the story.

Lastly, we discussed four different topics in groups. We came to the conclusion that name in the book are every important and that you achieve great power if you are able to figure out somebody’s name or of an object. Girls, another topic, were seen as independent, annoyances, sinister, afterthoughts, and seen in negative ways. An example was the girl that Ged was talking too who actually turned out to be a bad witch. Education, in the book, is seen as more as how you are able to learn to control your magic and make good decisions on it. In every descision that you make about magic, you must learn that good and evil must balance each other because if not then it could cause dire consequences. Frendship was another main point. Ged can’t seem to make that many friends because he cares too much what other people think of him and he becomes very hostile. The one friend that he has, Vetch, looks out for him and Ged doesn’t realize what he has and it will prove to be a great use to him when he does.