The Word for World is Forest

by

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Word for World is Forest: Chapter One Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
When Captain Davidson wakes up, he thinks about two pieces of news, one good and one bad. The good: a shipload of 212 women has just arrived in Centralville. A town on the planet of New Tahiti, Centralville is 27 light-years away from Earth and about four hours by helicopter from Smith Camp, where Davidson lives. The women have been shipped to the New Tahiti Colony to breed.
Immediately, readers know that Captain Davidson’s world isn’t like their own, as humans like Davidson are living on distant planets. Because Tahiti is an island on Earth, the fact that Captain Davidson knows his current planet as “New Tahiti” suggests that humans might have named this planet and thus control it. Notably, women don’t seem to have much agency in this new world: they’re treated as cargo, and their central purpose is to have children.
Themes
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The bad news came in a new report from Dump Island: erosion has wiped out the crops. This began happening before Davidson was sent from Dump Island to run Smith Camp. He vividly remembers the bare soil washing into the ocean.
This passage hints at Captain Davidson’s purpose on New Tahiti: the planet is being used for agriculture. But the fact that they refer to one of its islands as “Dump Island” is the novella’s first hint that humans don’t respect the planet’s ecology.
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The erosion apparently means that, on New Tahiti, they need to create farmland around stands of trees.  Davidson finds this silly; nobody has to waste valuable acreage on trees back on Earth. But then again, Earth is tame and New Tahiti isn’t, which is why he’s here—“to tame it.” Grinning, Davidson thinks about men like him conquering this planet. He likes a challenge.
Davidson’s dismissal of the planet’s need for trees further suggests that he doesn’t care about nature, an important character trait that many of the humans in the novella share. This passage suggests that Davidson will be an antagonist, as his desire “to tame” New Tahiti with other men hints that he perhaps overvalues dominance and masculinity. This passage also hints that Earth looks different in this universe—Davidson’s surprise at the erosion’s cause implies that there aren’t many trees left on Earth, which could be why the humans are on New Tahiti.
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Davidson gets out of bed and calls for his creechie, Ben, ordering him to prepare the hot water. After dressing, Davidson exits his hut into the clearing where Ben has heated the water over a fire. Ben seems to be staring vacantly—typical of a creechie—and Davidson orders him to make breakfast.
Apparently, there are native life forms on New Tahiti, and the humans have enslaved them—Davidson claims ownership over “his” creechie, who is reluctantly doing Davidson’s chores. Davidson’s desire to “tame” the planet is therefore not just about nature but about other species, too, which implies that he desires violent control over others. Because readers view these events from Davidson’s perspective, the novella doesn’t explain why Ben stares vacantly. But as readers learn more about the natives, Ben’s reaction will become clearer.
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Today, Davidson plans to go to Central and see the shipload of women, who will be distributed among the 2,000 men on New Tahiti. Most are Colony Brides and only 20-30 are Recreation Staff—he wants to claim one of those quickly, as they’re “real good greedy girls.”
Again, women don’t have much agency in this human society, and they exist to serve men. Based on Davidson’s musings, readers can assume that “Colony Brides” are meant to bear children and that “Recreation Staff” are meant for casual sex with men, which is why Davidson wants to claim a woman from the latter group.
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Ben is taking forever to bring breakfast, so Davidson yells again. While Ben is old and “dumb even for a creechie,” Davidson knows how to get him to work. He could tame any creechie, but he’s excited not to need them anymore once there are enough humans on New Tahiti. This is the planet’s destiny—it’s been “literally made for men.” Once they’ve cut down forests to make fields and eliminated “savagery and ignorance,” it’ll be perfect, and it will be his. Davidson considers himself a “world-tamer.”
Davidson definitively emerges as an antagonist here, as he implies not only that he’d like to deforest the planet but that he’d like to wipe out the native “creechies”—a desire that grows over the course of the novella. Furthermore, Davidson’s boast that he can “tame” creechies implies that he has acted and will act violently toward them. The humans seem to be colonists on New Tahiti, so Davidson’s belief that the planet is “made for men” is both factually untrue and indicative of the humans’ desire for dominance. Davidson’s society supports this desire, as human men have power over both women and the natives on New Tahiti.
Themes
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Quotes
Walking through the camp, Davidson runs into Kees Van Sten, who asks him to stop the loggers from hunting red deer. There’s a law against hunting red deer, but Davidson doesn’t want to enforce it—it’s the men who matter, he says, not the animals, and it’s fine if “a little extra-legal hunting” helps the men have fun. Kees protests that the men have other hobbies, including movies, drinking, and—for those who don’t want to participate in the Army’s sanctioned “hygienic homosexuality”—there are the new women in Central. According to Kees, Davidson’s “frontier heroes” are spoiled already and shouldn’t wipe out rare native species for fun—he’ll report Davidson if he doesn’t do something.
Apparently, Davidson’s dismissive attitude toward New Tahiti’s wildlife isn’t universal among the humans, as Kees Van Sten is more concerned about the deer than he is about the men. Notably, the men don’t seem to be hunting the deer for food, and instead, this seems to be another way for them to feel dominant—much like Davidson enjoys feeling dominant over Ben. This passage reveals that Davidson is part of a military complex and hints that while Davidson deeply values his masculinity, this human society doesn’t have the same gender and sexual norms as readers’ society, as the Army itself apparently facilitates “hygienic homosexuality.” While some elements of this human society are recognizable, others are heightened or distorted.
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Davidson calmly condescends to Kees, saying that it’s fine to report him, but it’s silly to want to preserve and study the planet’s forest. Unlike Kees, Davidson puts Earth first; Earth desperately needs wood, so they’re here to log New Tahiti. Kees scoffs at the idea of remaking New Tahiti into Earth, which is just cement now.
Readers learn the colonists’ reason for being on New Tahiti in this passage: Earth’s natural resources are gone, and they need to mine New Tahiti’s. This makes it all the more shocking that Davidson doesn’t value the forest as much as Kees does, since Earth has already lost their flora and fauna. Davidson might think that he’s putting “Earth first,” but clearly the humans weren’t always thinking in those terms.
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Kees storms away, and Davidson thinks about deer, which he first saw on New Tahiti—they’re amazing animals, especially compared to the “robodeer” on Earth. It’s only natural to hunt them, he thinks, since that’s what they’re for. While Davidson admits that Kees is smart, he’s not a realistic thinker; he doesn’t see the advantage of siding with mankind, even though Man wins every challenge.
Not only are Earth’s trees gone, but their wildlife seems to be gone as well. Deer are likely overpopulated rather than endangered in places where the novella’s readers live—so if even deer are extinct and replaced with “robo” versions of themselves in this universe, most other animals must be as well. Davidson seems to view violence as “natural,” a belief that the novella will complicate. Finally, this passage introduces the concept of what it means to be “realistic”: Davidson’s definition of realism seems to be based on the assumption that men are naturally and rightfully dominant over others.
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Davidson continues his walk through the logging camp. With their 200 men, they’ve already tamed a good chunk of wilderness—it was “nothing” before, only trees. New Tahiti is largely water, and the rest is forest. On Earth, wood is more valuable than gold, which is why the men are here: transforming New Tahiti’s forest into lumber and then giving the clear-cut land over to farming.
Davidson’s belief that there was “nothing” on the planet when it was covered by forest is tongue-in-cheek, as there’s literally nothing left in the areas that the humans have deforested. This passage also confirms that the colonists are here to take New Tahiti’s wood, then farm the land. The fact that the land must be clear in order to farm it suggests that they plan to deforest large swaths of the planet, which will likely be a point of tension between the humans and natives.
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New Tahiti has been colonized previously, about a million years before. Someone—it’s not clear who—brought plants and animals from Earth, and Earth and New Tahiti have evolved in parallel over the centuries. The big difference is that humans died out on New Tahiti, and creechies—three-foot-tall descendants of monkeys—have become humanity’s closest replacement. They’re quite inferior to humans, though.
The origin story of Earth differentiates the novella’s version of Earth from readers’. Ursula Le Guin wrote many books that explored this origin story; in her unofficial “Hainish Cycle” (which this novella is part of), a planet called Hain colonized Earth years earlier, which is what Davidson references here. Although Hain also colonized New Tahiti, Earth-based humans are now in charge of that colonization. The fact that “creechies” descended from monkeys suggests that they’re genealogically related to humans—a fact that’s meant to make readers sympathize with the creechies and question the morality of humans enslaving them.
Themes
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Someone greets Davidson, and he’s a little slow to turn around—this stupid planet makes him daydream. It’s Oknanawi Nabo (Ok), a dark-skinned, tough-looking guy. Davidson lights a reefer (his first for today) and admires the scenery as Ok tells him that he wants to let the creechies in the mill go, since he—unlike Davidson—can’t get them to work. The history course that Ok took during training warned him that slavery was uneconomical, and Davidson stops him there: this isn’t slavery, because creechies aren’t human.
Part of Le Guin’s inspiration for the novella came from the Vietnam War, and Davidson’s apparently regular use of marijuana seems to be a direct reference to American soldiers in Vietnam. This passage also reveals that, much like Davidson’s attitude toward nature, his attitude toward the creechies isn’t universal, as some men are uncomfortable with dominating the creechies. Davidson’s insistence that the creechies aren’t human seems questionable, because again, they’re related to humans through a common ancestor.
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Ok argues that the creechies too little and it doesn’t work to starve them, but Davidson says that they’re tough and don’t feel pain. Ok should know this, since he and Davidson have both had sex with the females, who just lay there. Back when Davidson was in Central, a crazy male creechie jumped him, even though creechies supposedly don’t fight. Davidson almost killed him, but the creechie kept coming back, like a squashed bug that won’t die. Davidson still has a scar. You have to be hard on them, Davidson tells Ok.
Not only have the humans enslaved the creechies, but they also apparently assault the creechie women. Because of this, readers are led to distrust Davidson’s assertion that the creechies don’t feel pain—it seems likely that the women simply didn’t express this pain verbally. Davidson’s description of his altercation with a creechie is significant, particularly because he implies that the creechie attacked him unprovoked. Later in the novella, readers will learn that there’s more to the story.
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Davidson senses that Ok won’t hurt creechies due to their small size, so he suggests that Ok threaten them with hallucinogens, which they’re afraid of. Davidson then asks if Ok wants to have a Collie Girl set aside for him, and Ok asks Davidson to leave a few for him. They watch creechies pass, and Ok confesses that creechies freak him out. Davidson agrees—if Lyubov wasn’t on New Tahiti and Colonel Dongh didn’t care about following the Code, Davidson would want the creechies killed instead of sticking with this Voluntary Labor thing. The creechies will be wiped out eventually, anyway, since men can hardly assimilate green monkeys.
This passage reveals that the colonists are following a code of conduct, and they’ve excused their enslavement of the creechies by claiming that the creechies are volunteers. Again, creechies and humans share ancestry, so Davidsons’ claim that the creechies can’t be assimilated is false—although the creechies apparently look different from humans. Again, Davidson’s eagerness to hurt the creechies seems to be greater than other men’s, which positions him as an antagonist. It's not yet clear why the creechies are afraid of drugs, but as readers become familiar with the natives’ culture, this becomes obvious.
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Davidson checks out a hopper from HQ, and the guy on duty tells him to bring back a Collie for him. As Davidson flies over camp, he passes by swaths of trees until he gets to Centralville, which looks like a real city. This makes sense, because it was built when the Colony started four years ago. The ship in Central looks huge, even though it’s just a launcher. Davidson tears up at seeing the ship—he’s not ashamed of being patriotic. Walking down the streets in Central, he passes women and stares at their bodies.
In this passage, readers learn that Davidson’s desire for dominance is tied to “patriotism”—the novella seems to suggest that the colonists are motivated by nationalism, but nationalism for a planet rather than a country. And again, women clearly don’t have a lot of agency in this society, as the men treat them like sexual objects rather than people.
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Davidson goes to meet up with a friend (Juju Sereng) at the bar and sees Raj Lyubov there, sitting with some Navy men. Davidson doesn’t respect the Navy, since they leave the hard work to the Army, but it’s still funny and unusual to see Lyubov getting along with any soldier, since he isn’t one. Davidson greets Lyubov, who hates him deeply. This amuses Davidson. Lyubov is probably girly like all other intellectuals; that’s why he hates Davidson. Someone brings over some new Collie girls—luckily, these women aren’t Brides, but rather the “fruity beauties” on Recreation Staff. Sometimes, the Colonial Administration manages to come through. Davidson happily spends the afternoon with the women.
Lyubov is an “intellectual,” though it’s not yet clear what his job is. Nonetheless, his role on New Tahiti is clearly different from Davidson’s military position, which is why Davidson thinks he’s “girly.” However, this difference in duties doesn’t explain Lyubov’s hatred of Davidson, and Davidson doesn’t seem to understand this hatred, either—instead, he assumes that Lyubov is threatened by his masculinity. Later in the novella, readers learn that there’s more to the story than Davidson discloses here, which suggests that his narration is selective. Once again, women seem to have no agency—these women were supplied by the Administration, suggesting that they don’t choose their sexual partners.
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As Davidson is flying back to camp, he notices that there’s smoke above it. Flying closer, he can see that everything is burned—the hoppers, the hangar, HQ—but it wasn’t a forest fire, because the trees are standing. He touches down and hides behind a shack, but he can’t hear anything. The attack must have been either from an enemy camp or another planet, and the latter seems likelier. Maybe it’s the humanoids (the Cetians and Hainish), whom Davidson never trusted.
Upon seeing the wreckage at Smith, Davidson’s automatic instinct is to blame members of what he sees as another species (the “humanoids”). This is another example of planetary nationalism in the novella, which also explains Davidson’s open hostility toward the creechies. Readers don’t yet know whether or not Davidson is right that the “humanoids” attached Smith, but it’s already clear that his instincts are rooted in his own desire for dominance and superiority over other species.
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Davidson is about to get to the hopper to send out an alarm when he hears alien voices. As he ducks behind the shack’s roof, four creechies pass by, none wearing the shorts and collar that tame creechies wear—the Volunteer creechies must have been killed. Davidson assumes these creechies are spying for the invaders, but then one turns, and he recognizes it as the crazy creechie who attacked him in Central under a year ago and became Lyubov’s pet.
Davidson still sticks with his theory that this attack came from “invaders”—an ironic viewpoint, since the creechies likely view humans as invaders. But the fact that the only people Davidson has seen so far are the creechies, and the fact that Davidson already knows one of these creechies to be violent, pokes holes in his theory and suggests that the attack may not have come from the Hainish. This passage also reveals that the violent creechie is connected to Lyubov, which hints that there’s more to Lyubov’s hatred of Davidson than just Davidson’s masculinity.
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Brandishing a gun, Davidson jumps out and asks who started the fire. The crazy creechie, who has a scar from Davidson on his face, says that the creechies burned the camp and all its humans are dead. Previously, this camp held 200 men and 90 enslaved creechies, but while Davidson was gone, 900 creechies came from the forest, killed the humans, and burned the camp. The creechie assumed Davidson was dead—he’s glad to see him now. But Davidson doesn’t believe anything this creechie has said; as a species, creechies never fight back, they certainly don’t massacre, and they only have bows, anyway. Davidson asks who told them to do this, and the creechie tells Davidson that the creechie’s wife did.
Because readers have been introduced to some seemingly important humans at Smith, like Kees and Ok, the novella invites readers to be as surprised as Davidson that these characters are dead. Their deaths hint that the story won’t be centered on humans and their superiority over other species, as much as characters like Davidson want this to be the case. Obviously, this creechie remembers Davidson as well as Davidson remembers him, and readers now grasp why their first encounter was significant. Apparently, creechies are nonviolent, which means that the creechie’s attack on Davidson—and his recent attack on Smith—was out of character. This hints that the attacks were provoked and not random. Readers don’t yet know why the creechie brings up his wife, but her involvement in this conflict will later explain the events that have unfolded thus far.
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The creechie jumps at Davidson, dodging Davidson’s gunshot. He then pins Davidson down, grabs his gun, and, bizarrely, begins to sing. The other three creechies smile, which Davidson has never seen. Davidson has also never seen a creechie from above. The crazy creechie—Scarface—points a knife and Davidson’s gun at Davidson. He ends his song and then inexplicably tells Davidson that if Davidson can’t sing, he can head back to Central to tell the humans what happened.
Readers are still viewing events from Davidson’s perspective, so nothing the creechie does (including singing) makes sense. For now, readers are as disoriented as Davidson, who clearly feels emasculated by his position below the creechies. This passage introduces Davidson’s gun as a symbol, which will come to represent humans’ innate capacity for violence. The creechie steals this gun from Davidson, so the fact that he doesn’t use it on Davidson suggests that he’s making a conscious choice to act nonviolently.
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Quotes
Davidson gets up and notices that another creechie is pointing a gun at him: it’s his creechie, Ben. Davidson begins walking away, and one of the creechies shoots near him. Scarface tells him to run. Now Davidson remembers that Scarface’s name is Selver—they’d called him Sam before Lyubov prevented Davidson from killing him.
Davidson believed he was in control of Ben, but apparently, Ben was working to bring down Smith the whole time, likely providing inside information to other creechies. In fact, he might be the one to shoot at Davidson here. This passage continues to hint that the reason Lyubov hates Davidson might have something to do with Selver, since Lyubov apparently saved Selver. This passage also demonstrates that most of the humans weren’t willing to connect with the creechies, not even bothering to use their names, though they apparently knew them.
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Davidson runs, certain that they can’t kill him; it’s impossible. He jumps into the hopper and circles around looking for the creechies, but they’re gone. Using the hopper’s machine guns, he shoots at the ground until the ammo runs out, then he flies back to Central feeling calmer, certain that no one can blame him for what happened. In fact, the creechies clearly waited until he was gone to strike. Now, no one will be able to prevent the humans from clearing the planet of creechies—not even Lyubov, since his pet was at fault for the attack. Maybe Davidson will be put in charge of extermination. This makes him smile.
Davidson’s first instinct after feeling emasculated is to retaliate with violence, which is a character trait that will have consequences later on (particularly because, in this passage, he isn’t authorized to drop bombs). Davidson is also willing to lie to save his own skin, because he already knows that the creechies didn’t wait for him to leave—Selver was surprised that he was alive. And even though Selver just showed Davidson mercy, Davidson continues to fantasize about dominating the creechies, which demonstrates his narrow worldview and unwavering prejudice.
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Quotes