Humility and Moderation vs. Ego and Excess Theme Analysis

A “good Odonian” has “empty hands,” Shevek tells his Urrasti hosts early on in the novel. With no money and almost zero individual material possessions, the Anarresti value restraint, frugality, and humility—real-life Taoist principles which inspired Le Guin’s conception of Anarresti values. Shevek’s “empty hands”—like the empty hands with which the Anarresti initially departed from Urras—are a recurring motif throughout the novel, and a metaphor for the anti-materialist values that drive Anarresti society. Meanwhile, on Urras, ego, luxury, and materialism rule the day. When Shevek arrives on the planet, he is bewildered by and suspicious of Urrasti commodities such as leather shoes, alcohol, and feather beds, though he ultimately indulges in the hedonistic and luxurious ways of the Urrasti upper classes. As Le Guin relays Shevek’s life story through the novel’s nonlinear timeline, she highlights the contrast between his utilitarian past and his extravagant present, suggesting that ego and excess can be just as damaging as self-denial and false humility. Shevek’s journey is one towards true humility—and it is one that requires him to find a balance between Urrasti and Anarresti ways in order to make a true change on either planet.  

During his stay on Urras, Shevek accompanies a Urrasti woman, Vea, throughout a day and night out on the town, and witnesses the extent of Urrasti hedonism and luxury up-close. For the first time in his life, he overindulges to the point of excess. Vea, an attractive, sharp, and witty woman, takes Shevek out to two rich meals, a performance at a local theatre, and then the two of them ride in a taxi back to Vea’s apartment. Vea makes Shevek pay for all of it, and the exchange of money for goods and services is startling and off-putting to Shevek. Nevertheless, he goes along, hoping to impress and ingratiate himself with Vea. When the two return to Vea’s apartment, guests begin to arrive in fine clothing for an orgiastic cocktail party. Shevek becomes intoxicated and assaults Vea, overcome by his desire for her. Shevek’s colleagues help him home, drunken and disgraced as he is, and as Shevek sees firsthand how destructive the Urrasti way of life can be, he understands for the first time the stringent moral stance against materialism his people have taken on, and why. 

In a speech he gives during an Urrasti workers’ uprising, Shevek preaches the promise of freedom that awaits on Anarres. “If it is Anarres you want,” Shevek advises the rebels, “if it is the future you seek, then I tell you that you must come to it with empty hands. You must give yourself. You cannot buy the Revolution. You can only be the Revolution.” The Anarresti principles of humility and restraint, which Shevek began to fear he had forgotten during his time on Urras, resurge in him as integral aspects of his being and his philosophy. He can now understand the significance of “empty hands.” Being emptyhanded—free of ego, free of materialism—has the potential to be a selfless act, and a leap of faith—as long as it is a choice, and not an ideal forced upon a person, as it is on Anarres.

In the novel’s very last lines, Shevek prepares for his return to Anarres and his reunion with his partner and children. He wishes that he had brought home a souvenir for them, but notes that his hands are “empty, as they [have] always been.” Despite all he has witnessed on Urras, and the temptations he has faced, Shevek remains optimistic about the principles that govern his beloved Anarres. As he returns, empty-handed, to his homeland, he honors the message of humility his ancestors championed, but also recognizes that in order to give oneself over to a cause, there must be a self to give. On Anarres, Shevek for a long time made himself—and his work—smaller in order to appease the society he functioned in: a society that reviled egoism, possession, and individual gain. Throughout the course of the novel—and Shevek’s life—he has come to realize that by blindly engaging in self-denial, he has been wounding himself and preventing his people from achieving all they could. It is only when he has the choice to be either egotistic or “emptyhanded”—or both, in balance—that he can best enrich his own life and the lives of his people.