The Word for World is Forest

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1972

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Dreams

Dreams are linked to consciousness and subconsciousness. Selver describes the yumens as insane because they are able to dream only while asleep. He says this because he knows the subconscious level of the mind takes over when one is dreaming. But because the yumens can access their subconscious only while asleep, it limits the amount of control they have over their minds. It robs them of what the Athsheans consider a balanced mind and leads to insanity.

The Athsheans are able to access their dreams even while awake. To an extent, they can control their dreams because they use them as screens upon which to test out theories and courses of action. The most skilled among them—such as Selver—are able to interpret dreams on behalf of the rest of their people. However, it is Selver’s interpretation of dreams that leads him to the idea of killing. It is open to debate whether his interpretation is a mistake that could have been avoided or an acknowledgement that violence and murder will always exist, infiltrating even a pacifist society like that of the Athsheans. Selver and his people are more conscious than the yumens, but this does not place them beyond harm or guarantee that they will make good interpretations or decisions.

The Forest

The trees of the forest have different values to the different parties in the novel. For the colonizers, the trees are a commodity and a symbol of capitalism because they can be rendered into wood for commercial use. The forest world is, in their view, a resource to be exploited, used, and, finally, exhausted without thought to the natives. For the Athsheans, the forest is their home. It provides them with shelter, shade, and wood when necessary. As the tension grows, however, the forest becomes a place to hide and a staging ground from which to launch attacks. When the captured humans are moved to a reservation for three years, it is in a spot where there are no trees, which is presented as part of their punishment. Similarly, Davidson is stranded in an area where there are neither trees nor life. The forest is vibrant and alive. Its removal leads to a barren, inhospitable landscape.

The Ansible

When the two emissaries from the League of Worlds attend the meeting on Athshe, they bring an ansible for the officers to use. The ansible is a radio that allows instantaneous communication. Previously, all communication from Earth took twenty-seven years to reach Athshe. This means that one had to assume that orders given twenty-seven years prior were still meant to be followed because if circumstances that might alter the mission changed back on Earth, this could not be known in real time. Without rapid communication, operating on false information is almost guaranteed. The introduction of the ansible allows more effective communication, but it also provides a new level of accountability. Humans such as Davidson can now be reported on in real time and must operate knowing that their actions cannot be hidden by the twenty-seven-year lag of messaging. The Athsheans are shown to be more advanced than their yumen counterparts in their communication, prior to the ansible, because of the facility with which they can communicate through the interpretation of dreams.