So this week, we finally had finished reading Le Guinn's, Left Hand of Darkness. in the class discussions, we came up with many points, one being Le Guinn's stress in gender. I've discussed with my classmates on how men are addressed as "people" and women objects. For example, if we were to name a boat, we name the boat a girl name, in most cases instinctively, and refer to it as "her" or "she". Even up to this day, although years before the whole situation of being sexist was more drastic, women today are still treated as "objects" by some men.

When we dicussed the book, an interesting topic came up, the relati0nship between Estraven and Genly. I thought, that throughout the whole book, Estraven and Genly were kind of dating. Both, evidently, were very suspicious and unsure of each other, just like how two people dating would feel before they get to know each other. then later on, Estraven protects Genly from suffering, just like a "knight in shining armor", and saves him. they both grow a closer relationship in terms of learning to trust each other (Genly also teaches Estraven to talk through their minds). Estraven dies in the end, and my inference from reading, i believe that Genly would be terribly heartbroken and sad because as soon as he and Estraven became more comfortable, he die :[

Estravn's death seems very ironic to Le Guinn's title, The Left Hand of Darkness. referring again to p. 233, that specific quote, I feel that the whole idea of Yin and Yang parallels with Estraven's death (Yin) and how his death was beneficial to Genly's mission (Yang).