For my senior project, I will be analyzing Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Earthsea Cycle in an analytical essay. As an avid fantasy reader, this series in particular fascinated me with its complex world and huge cast of characters and stories. As I read it, I noticed some themes that caught my eye and kept me thinking long after reading the last page and closing the book. I decided to continue thinking about Earthsea and turn it into my senior project.

The gender roles in Earthsea fascinated me. Women are presented as having the primary role of housewife, cooking and cleaning and producing and caring for children. Women are not allowed to study magic in a professional capacity; their magic is limited to what can be taught by other village witches. These gender roles are pretty standard in fantasy worlds; however, there are other seemingly random details, such as the fact that in Earthsea, mining for ore is considered women’s work and men never mine. 

I am interested in why Ursula K. Le Guin made these decisions in writing her world. I want to examine her history and why she chose to write Earthsea in the way that she did. What influenced her work? Which characters does she see as “good” or “bad” and why?

I definitely feel connected to this project because it is directly related to my love of fantasy books. I have always loved reading fantasy series, and now I’m able to bring it into my schoolwork and learn from it. I think that from this project I’ll develop my work ethic and learn how to motivate myself on self-guided projects. My buckets will be academic (the essay), service (volunteering at my synagogue’s Hebrew school), and either experience (internship) or creativity (writing a story set in Earthsea and/or making paintings inspired by Earthsea, such as the map or characters or landscapes). 

My measure of success will be based on my understanding of the Earthsea series and Ursula K. Le Guin herself. I have lots of questions right now, and I hope to find some answers in the books, other academic texts about the books, and in Le Guin’s history. I want my essay to be interesting and engaging, and I also want it to ask and answer some questions while also leaving some things open-ended. I don’t want to make assumptions about Le Guin’s intentions; rather, I want to gain some insight into her choices and experiences and deepen my understanding of the Earthsea world and stories.