Sunday, February 4, 2018

Estraven the Traitor

     In the Novel, The Left Hand of Darkness there are various parables presented to create a further connection or a symbolic connection towards the Gethen culture. An example of a parable that created a further connection to the novel is chapter 9 called Estraven the Traitor. In this chapter a tale is told about a kingdom in the Kerm Land that has a great blood feud between Domain of Stok and the Domain of Estre. One day, Lord of Estre gets into a predicament in enemy territory while skiing and is close to death. Until, he stumbles across Therem of Stock who will save him. These two mortal enemies create a close connection amongst which other which will later grow into a vowed kemmer. They realize the ridiculousness amongst the blood feud and, "Wish there might be peace between our houses." (129) However, the desire to create peace is ruined when Estraven is stabbed to death for entering enemy territory and making interactions with someone in Domain of Stock. Since they kemmered a child was born that would hopefully create peace in the Kerm Land.
     This parable alone summarizes the basic life of the major character Estraven from the novel. It is ironic that Estraven from the novel and Estraven from the parable both have the same name that will become the name of a traitor. They were also next in line to rule their home land until they betrayed it. They also vowed kemmer to someone from the enemy land. Lastly, the destiny amongst both Estravens' are the same. They both pay the consequences of a traitor with their life. 

3 comments:

  1. Estraven is ironically called a traitor even though he is a good-hearted That is always trying to do the right thing for everybody.

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  2. at first, I was confused about which Estraven they were talking about, little did I know it was a parable. I think estre bans the person that kills Estraven because he tells him to bury him at Estroven's home city karhide. But he came back, if he really did do as he was told, he wouldn't have came back. So he lied to Estre and got banished from the city.

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  3. When I read that chapter I became very confused on who are they talking about as the Estraven in the story that continues is the once we are all familiar with. The fact that this chapter was created makes us believe that Estraven is actually a good guy and doesn’t represent evil. They just wanted to make peace and hope for a better life . No one wants to be harmed in a bad way

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