Book review: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
A Wizard of Earthsea is a hero’s journey about a young wizard named Ged. It’s a delightful book written in a sort of mythological style that’s not overly flowery, but instead is quite precise. It’s a narrative about the relationship between the Ego and the Jungian Shadow, and how the Shadow can be incorporated.
The magic system in this book is built upon the idea that everything has a True Name, and that using a thing’s True Name in the Ancient Tongue enables mastery and magical power over that thing. It reminds me of the idea of the Divine Logos, that the spoken Word has creative power over the structure of reality itself. The spoken word is not only a representation of reality, but also has the power to shape it.
Ged is recognized at a young age to possess great magical talent and power. After becoming the apprentice of the local wizard, Ged becomes impatient due to his own arrogance. He is very sensitive to being slighted by others and gets easily offended when he perceives others to be looking down on him or mocking him. After someone mockingly insinuates that he isn’t powerful, he gets pissed and tries to prove them wrong. However, this leads to an encounter with his Shadow, a being from the netherworld.
Ged’s Shadow is a mythological representation of the idea of the Jungian Shadow and its incorporation. Ged eventually realizes that he can’t keep running away from the Shadow, and that he can’t destroy it, either. Throughout the story, Ged is concerned that if the Shadow catches him, it will take control of his body, forcing Ged to become a vehicle for evil.
Ged first becomes aware of his Shadow when he gives in to arrogance and insecurity to rebel against his master. Later, when he is a student on the island of Roke, he falls into a similar pattern of arrogance and insecurity. He develops an intense rivalry and burning hatred for a student who is his senior, all because of what seems to have started due to minor social misunderstandings and Ged’s seeming eagerness to identify to be offended. He becomes overcome with his hatred for his rival and seeks to show him up in raw magical power, thereby humiliating him. To do so, Ged attempts to raise a spirit from the dead. Though it seems to work at first, the Shadow also appears and becomes embodied in the world. The Shadow attacks Ged and tries to overcome him. Ged is badly injured and becomes traumatized about his own capacity for evil and malevolence. He is now horrified that the pursuit of magic may lead to him being taken over by the Shadow, so he loses confidence in himself and decides that it would be better for everyone if he avoided it.
Later, Ged is confronted with the reality that he can no longer continue running away from the Shadow. It never stops pursuing him and will eventually become a danger to those around him when it inevitable catches up to him and takes control. Ged has a run in with the Shadow in which the Shadow uses his True Name, “Ged,” thus having magical power over him. Ged is narrowly able to escape the threat, and then realizes that he must change tactics: he decides to confront his Shadow head-on in an effort to destroy it. Ged eventually catches up with the Shadow and attempts to grapple with it, but it literally slips out of his grasp. The Shadow does not yield to attempts made by the Ego to suppress the Shadow from the top-down.
After a period of contemplation, Ged realizes what he must do to solve the problem of his Shadow. Ged again pursues his shadow, and it takes him to a place of overwhelming darkness. Ged encounters the Shadow face-to-face, and names his Shadow with his own True Name, “Ged,” while the Shadow simultaneously Names him. While this is happening, there is a confrontation of the darkness of the Shadow and the blinding light Ged’s staff symbolic of the ego/consciousness. The blinding light and the overwhelming darkness become one, they are merged into grey. Ged incorporates his Shadow by recognizing that it is fundamentally a part of himself and accepting it into his being. By doing so, Ged achieves wholeness. His burden is lifted, and he gains true confidence in himself. He no longer overcompensates for his insecurities with haughty arrogance, but instead can embody a fuller manifestation of his Self because he finally knows who he is and has the courage to accept that.
I greatly enjoyed this book and am eager to read the next in the series. The characters and dialogue are very well crafted, and the prose is pleasant to read. Not only was it a good read, but the book has also given me much food for thought and motivation to recognize my own Shadow. Ged provides a good model for how to get in touch with the subconscious and incorporate the darkness within. I have recognized that I have been trying to wrestle with my Shadow through attempts to suppress it, but the Shadow inevitably rebels and comes back even stronger (I feel like the story of the exorcised demon who later returns with seven of his friends is a real pattern that has been manifesting itself in my life through vice). I think that my path forward will be one of acknowledging the Shadow and accepting it, allowing it to have its proper place at the table of my psyche and being.
5/5, would read again.
