Genly Ai Out of Place

Despite Genly Ai spending around two years in Winter, he still doesn’t have a great understanding of Gethenian culture. He’s still confused on the androgynous characteristics of Gethenians and the aspect of kemmering while also feeling out of place. For example, in Chapter 1 when he’s with Estraven, Genly describes Estraven as having many feminine characteristics. He states, “Though I had been nearly two years on Winter I was still far from being able to see the people of the planet through their own eyes. I tried to, but my efforts took the form of self-consciously seeing a Gethenian first as a man, then a woman, forcing him into these categories so irrelevant to his nature and so essential to my own (12).” This shows his inability to understand Gethenians and their culture. He attempts to understand their culture but is still struggling. He’s trying to get used to the culture and the social norms of Gethenians because they are different than Genly’s world.

 As the story unfolds and you see Genly Ai talk to others and read about his thoughts, you see that in his world women have inferior social statuses by using female or woman as a negative connotation. He constantly mentions females throughout the story which shows the social status of genders in his own society. In addition, the people of Gethen don’t have war which is odd to Genly Ai because where he comes from war seems to be a common way for people to settle their disputes. He is out of place and sometimes seems to judge or point out things not common in his world. However since he's human, he still has the urge to fit in society.(8) "Of course that was part of my job, but it was a part that got harder not easier as time went on; more and more often I longed for anonymity, for sameness. I craved to be like everybody else." Based on his society, it seems that he still wants anonymity which interests me since he says all the different things about their world but has the desire to be like everyone else.