The Dispossessed

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1974

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-13

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

On Anarres, Shevek finds a letter encouraging him to “join with us your brothers” (193). He desires to connect with the working classand tries to strike up a rapport with his servant, Efor; however, Efor is reluctant. On an expedition to Oiie’s house, he meets Oiie’s sister-in-law, Demaere, and finds her alluring. While escorting her to the train station, he sees in one of the small newspapers a notice that there has been a revolution in the nation of Benbili. He soon reads that A-Io has also sent an army to combat troops from Thu and suppress the revolution, which disgusts him. He wishes to escape the prison of the university—and Urras—and settles for a spontaneous trip to Nio Esseia, where Demaere lives. He spends a day with her, delighting in her charm and her perspective on gender roles. She tells him he is not truly a rebel—he has to obey more laws than she does; for him, they are simply internalized. At her party later that evening, Shevek gets drunk and discusses the relationships between physics and ethics. He tells the party guests that they are “all in jail” (229). Then, he tries to force himself on Demaere. Pae arrives at the party and escorts him home. We learn that Pae and others don’t want Shevek to appear in the streets of Nio, due to myths and scripture that talk about a “Forerunner,” a stranger who will appear on Urras before a revolution (251).

Chapter 8 Summary

On Anarres, Shevek and Takver endure a drought as Takver carries their first child. Sabul continues to refuse to publish Shevek’s work on simultaneity theory, and Takver suggests he include Sabul as a co-author to assuage him. An abridged version is published, and Shevek puts a full-length copy in a ship to Anarres. Takver gives birth to Sadik, a girl, and as the drought and famine worsen, they deal with their society’s disregard for monogamy. While Sadik is still nursing, Shevek is posted in the South. Communication is difficult; it requires material and labor to send letters, so they are frowned upon. He and Takver often miss each other’s infrequent missives. When he returns to Abbenay, Takver has been posted elsewhere, and he discovers Sabul has disallowed him from teaching courses in Abbenay. Sabul has not put him in for postings elsewhere, either. He cannot find a posting near Takver, so he goes where his help is needed, as the drought continues: to the Southwest, “the Dust” (270).

Chapter 9 Summary

On Urras, Shevek wakes up with a hangover and experiences an unfamiliar sense of shame. He recommits to his work in physics, determined to create a theory bridging two schools of physics: the traditional Sequency physics, and the Simultaneity theory he has pioneered. He draws on the insights of an ancient alien physicist, “Aisenstain,” and has a breakthrough. He falls ill due to overwork, and Efor cares for him; this time, his servant opens up to him about his life and poverty. Shevek shows him the note urging him to join his brothers, and Efor reluctantly tells him where he can go to find the people who might have written it. He travels to new parts of Nio, and learns from the rebel Maedda that he, Shevek, is a walking symbol for anarchism, and for hope. The lower classes of Nio wish to protest the proxy war in Binbili. Shevek agrees to write a piece to inspire solidarity amongst workers who plan to strikeand gives a speech on the suffering that ties mankind together. He ends, “You can only be the Revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere” (301). Nio’s army attacks the strikers, and Shevek flees, taking a wounded stranger with him to a basement. The other man dies overnight.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

These sections continue to explore gender roles, revealing the first perspective of an Urrasti woman. Demaere believes that women actually control men—and thus society. However, in an ironic shift, Shevek, a man who believes in the equality between men and women, forces himself on her. Because he has only had consensual sexand is unfamiliar with the power imbalance and struggles that are common on Urras, he does not understand Demaere’s fear at his advances. Her fear and helplessness in the face of his forcefulness reveal that her certainty at women’s power and superiority is unfounded: she knows to be afraid because violence against women is common on Urras.

These chapters also continue on the theme of internal vs. external power structures. Demaere tells Shevek that he has “a Queen Teaea inside”; for him, rules are so internalized that he doesn’t need a government to order him around. This agrees with Bedap’s earlier comments about the government of Anarresti: public opinion and consensus have become the standards for society, and everyone agrees on them, so much so that independent thought can be risky, as it is to Tirin—and to Shevek.

However, on Anarres, Shevek recommits himself to the power of the individual, telling strikers that the revolution begins internally, with an individual’s independent thought, and willingness to buck social norms in the service of greater good, even if it means sacrificing himself. Shevek is willing to do so, putting himself in the way of physical harm, as are the other protestors. He repeats his boyhood assertion that solidarity is founded on sufferingand suggests that individual suffering is necessary to free the collective.

In introducing the physicist Aisenstain, the novel references Albert Einstein, and suggests that it takes place in a distant future where life on Earth as we know it has ended (an idea that will be returned to later in the text). Shevek notes that Aisenstain refused to see the parallels between physics and ethics, but Shevek himself is determined to see them. The reader is reminded that Einstein’s insights were used to create the atomic bomb, and that divorcing science from the ends it will be put to can lead to disaster. Shevek’s physics theories are thus framed as potential revolutionary tools—not just for science, but also for society on Urras and beyond.