Hainish universe themes
Similar to future history works by other authors such as Isaac Asimov, Le Guin's fictional works set in the Hainish universe explore the idea of human society expanding across the galaxy.[12] Books like The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Word for World is Forest also explore the effects of various social and political systems.[8] Le Guin's later Hainish novels also challenge contemporary ideas about gender, ethnic differences, the value of ownership, and human beings' relationship to the natural world.[57]
In comparison to the other worlds of the Hainish universe, the relationship between Athshe and the League of Worlds is portrayed as ambiguous. Whereas with planets such as Gethen in The Left Hand of Darkness the integration with the Hainish planets is seen as a good thing, Athshe is seen as changed for the worse both by the loggers and by being taught to kill their own species.[58] The League eventually decides to isolate Athshe and limit all contact with it, a decision shown to have ambiguous overtones.[58]
Language and communication
Language and linguistic barriers are a major theme in The Word for World Is Forest, something exemplified by the title. In contrast to other Hainish universe novels such as The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World Is Forest portrays a communication gap that the protagonists are never able to bridge.[14] Both the native Athsheans and the loggers have languages that reflect their perceptions of reality, but they are unable to find a common language. In the native Athshean language, the word "Athshe" means both "forest" and "world", demonstrating the close link that the Athsheans have to the forest and their planet.[14] It is noted by Lyubov that the Athsheans believe "the substance of their world was not earth, but forest".[59] The language used by the Athsheans during conversations similarly show their interconnectedness and dependence on their ecosystem through the use of forest related metaphors.[60]
Similarly, the Athshean word for "dream" is the same as the word for "root". Athsheans have learned to exert some conscious control over their dreams, and their actions are dictated by both their dream experiences and their conscious non-dreaming thoughts. Thus their dreaming makes them rooted, something which is demonstrated through their use of language.[14] The Athshean word for "god" is the same as the word for "translator", representing this role that "gods have" in their society, which is to interpret and translate their dreams into actions.[46]
Dreaming and consciousness
The Word for World is Forest shares the theme of dreaming with the later Le Guin novel The Lathe of Heaven.[51] Suzanne Reid stated that the novel examines the source and effect of dreams.[15] The Athsheans teach themselves to consciously and actively control their dreams.[61] This allows them to access their subconscious in a way that the Terrans are not able.[61] The Athsheans follow a polycyclic sleep pattern with a period of 120 minutes, which makes it impossible for them to adapt to the Terran eight-hour work day. Their dreaming is not restricted to times when they are asleep, with adept dreamers being able to dream while wide awake as well.[51] The visions they see while dreaming direct and shape their waking behavior, which Selver describes as "balanc[ing] your sanity ... on the double support, the fine balance, of reason and dream; once you have learned that, you cannot unlearn it any more than you can unlearn to think."[51]
The leaders among the Athsheans are the best dreamers, and they consider individuals able to interpret dreams to be gods.[46] The Athshean word for "god" is the same as the word for "translator", representing this role that "gods have" in their society.[46] Spivack writes that Selver becomes such a god during the events of The Word for World is Forest, but his interpretation of dreams is a negative one, because it tells the Athsheans how to kill.[46]
The Athsheans perceive the Terrans as an insane people, partly because of the disconnect amongst the Terrans between conscious, rational thinking and subconscious drives.[61] The Terrans frequent use of hallucinogens is seen as the closest they are able to get to understanding their own subconscious. The psychological equilibrium which their dreaming gives the Athsheans is portrayed as the reason why they are able to live in balance with their ecosystem.[61]
Reviewer Ian Watson states that the Athshean forest itself is a metaphor for consciousness in the novel. The Terrans, distanced from their own tangled subconscious, are afraid of the forest, and seek to tear it down.[61] The Athsheans, in contrast, are integrated with it at a subconscious level. The entire forest is also seen as a collective Athshean consciousness.[61] Although the forest in The Word for World is Forest is not actually sentient, Le Guin explores the idea of a sentient forest further in the short story "Vaster than Empires and More Slow", which shares many thematic parallels with the former.[61]
Colonialism and anti-war themes
Le Guin was strongly opposed to and troubled by the Vietnam War, a reaction which played a large part in the tone of the novel.[14] The tone of the novel is often harsh and hard-hitting, playing off the anger in the United States at American military actions in Vietnam.[46] The tension between violence and non-violence is a part of the dialectic theme in the novel, of a constant tension between opposites.[46] Through most of the novel, the Terran military is in control of the colony, despite Raj Lyubov's good intentions. Davidson is the most prominent example of the oppressiveness of the military government.[61] There are intentional parallels drawn between the Terran colonizers and the US intervention in Vietnam; the anti-interventionist tone of the novel was in sharp contrast to other science-fiction novels about war written around the same period.[61] For example, the high use of drugs amongst US troops in Vietnam is represented by the use of hallucinogens amongst the Terran soldiers, which Le Guin portrays as the norm on the colony.[61]
The Athsheans, in contrast, are shown as an innately peaceful and non-aggressive people, at least at the beginning of novel. Rape and murder are virtually unknown on the planet.[18] They have adopted a number of behaviors that preempt violence; thus when Selver has Davidson pinned down after the attack on Smith camp, he finds himself unable to kill Davidson, despite the hate he feels towards the Terran.[18] Selver spends much of the novel reflecting on the effect that violence has on his own culture. He turns to violence, against the Athshean ethic, in order to save his culture as he sees it.[62] However, unlike Davidson, who enjoys killing, Selver sees it as something poisoning his culture. This perception is shared by his fellow Athsheans: one of the elders of the Athsheans says to Selver "You've done what you had to do, and it was not right."[62]
The Word for World is Forest also challenges the idea of colonialism; the Terran colonists are depicted as being blind to the culture of the Athsheans, and convinced that they represent a higher form of civilization.[15] Le Guin also challenges the metaphorical preference in Western cultures for pure light, in contrast to deeper and more complex shadows.[15]
Ecological sensitivity
Throughout the novel Le Guin draws a contrast between the Athshean way of integrating with the ecology of the planet, and the Terran way of destroying it. The Athsheans are portrayed as having a decentralized society, which has not damaged the ecosystem to further its own economy.[14] In comparison, the Terrans are shown as having nearly destroyed their planet by exhausting its natural resources, and having come to Athshe to plunder its resources.[14] The Terrans have an instrumentalist view of the forest, seeing it as wood to be shipped to Terra and land to be transformed into farms.[51] The Athshean dwellings and towns are built in a way that allows them to integrate with their environment:
No way was clear, no light unbroken, in the forest. Into wind, water, sunlight, starlight, there always entered leaf and branch, bole and root, the shadowy, the complex. Little paths ran under the branches, around the boles, over the roots: they did not go straight, but yielded to every obstacle, devious as nerves ...[63][62]
This depiction not only links the Athsheans to their environment, but gives primacy to the forest over the rest of the natural ecosystem.[62] The Athsheans' clans are named after trees, and their highly decentralized social structure is constructed in a way that resembles their ecosystem.[62] To the Athsheans, being a mentally healthy person is equivalent to being in touch with their roots, which are closely linked to their ecosystem.[62] In contrast, the Terrans' behavior, such as rape and murder, is attributed to their leaving "their roots behind them".[62] In the Athshean language the word for "forest" is also the word for "world", showing the dependence of the Athshean culture upon the forest.[21] In contrast, the Terrans ignorance of the ecology of the planet has already denuded one island in the archipelago, and is damaging the rest of the planet. Davidson sees the forest as a waste of space, and wishes to turn it into farmland.[21]
The contrast between the Terran relationship to the planet and the Athshean one is the major example of a larger dialectical structure within the novel, a comparison of opposites.[51] Throughout, the Athsheans are shown as living in balance with their world, while the Terrans despoil it. The Athsheans are shown as a gentle people, in contrast the violence and aggression of the Terrans.[51]
The three main characters of the novella, Selver, Lyubov, and Davidson, have been described by reviewers as representing three different historical attitudes towards nature. Davidson represents the machismo of some early explorers, who feared nature and wanted to overcome it.[64] Lyubov has a more positive but highly romanticized view of the forest, while only Selver and the other Athsheans are able to live in harmony with it.[51]
Resemblance to Avatar
Several reviewers have noted that the narrative of the 2009 film Avatar has many similarities to that of The Word for World is Forest.[65][66] Specific similarities include the notion that the Earth's resources have been used up, the extraction of resources in an exploitative manner from another planet, a native population on that planet which lives in close harmony with their world, and a rebellion by those natives against the exploitative human colonizers.[65] A key difference lies in the roles of the "benevolent" humans in both works: Raj Lyubov in The Word for World is Forest, Jake Sully and the human scientists in Avatar. While Lyubov made an impression as a "sensible" human and did help mediate peace between the Athshean people and humanity, he is not the savior of their race, and he does not survive to claim any "prize" from it. Additionally, in The Word for World is Forest militarism is regarded by the Athsheans – especially Selver – as an unfortunate but necessary addition to Athshean culture, and one that may destroy their way of life. In contrast, militarism is seen less critically in Avatar.[65] In the introduction to the second volume of the Hainish Novels and Stories,[67] Le Guin signals the similarities with "a high-budget, highly successful film" which "completely reverses the book's moral premise, presenting the central and unsolved problem of the book, mass violence, as a solution" and states "I'm glad I have nothing at all to do with it".[67]
