Wizard Of Earthsea Analysis

Ursula K. Le Guins novel A Wizard of Earthsea takes you through the life of a young wizard named Ged who makes a mistake that trouble him in his years to come. While Ged was discovering his powers and trying to adapt to them, he unleashed a shadow that “haunts” him in his elder years. When Ged finally confronts the Shadow at the end of the book it appears to him as his father, then Jasper, then Pechvarry, then as a kind of dragon, then Skiorh, and then as a “fearful face he did not know, man or monster, with writhing lips and eyes that were like pits going back into black emptiness” (pg. 179). In this essay we will explore how the Shadow might assume the image of these figures in Ged’s life, who these people are, what they signify, and also
In between those two embodiments were not only people in Ged’s life, but also monsters and dragons. This subtle progression symbolizes Ged’s life and his problems at specific moments in time. At the end of Ged’s battle with the shadow, he realizes that the shadow is actually him. This makes him accomplish his mission as stated, “Ged had neither lost nor won, but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself”. This fills the hole that was empty for so long and completes Ged in a sense. He overcomes his biggest antagonist, himself.
No aspect of being a wizard seems to be easy, especially when you mistakenly release a scary shadow that transforms into different people and chases you around. Ged, the protagonist in Le Guins novel A Wizard of Earthsea, proved just that. He handled his mistakes and eventually resolved them. The moral of this story is to find your fear and overcome it, because most of the time that fear is self-caused and can be