Talk:The Tombs of Atuan

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The analysis calls this novel "more relevant" than the other Earthsea novels but doesn't specify to whom it is more relevant. Care to expand?

For me this book was by far the most moving and memorable of the original trilogy. I don't identify as much with Ged, because I'm not a wizard, or anything very analogous to a wizard. I don't have great powers that I accidentally use evilly in my hubris and then have to come to terms with. Also I'm not much taken by the idea that knowing the true name of a thing gives you the power to command it. This sort of wizardry fails to fascinate me.

On the other hand, I do identify with Tenar. Her life is intertwined with a narrow religion in service of selfish gods. The only place she is truly at home is alone, underground, in the dark. In order to break free, Tenar has to relinquish her power as a priestess, abandon her only sort-of-friend Manan, and leave her only place of comfort forever.

I don't know how many people have struggled to break free from indoctrination, so I don't know how relevant the story is to everyone else, but LeGuin understands what it is to be trapped. What breaks my heart is not so much the cage, as how much it hurts to get out. --Fritzlein 16:59, 4 August 2006 (UTC)