The Word for World is Forest

by

Ursula K. Le Guin

Reswan Character Analysis

Reswan is a native Athshean and one of Selver’s fellow leaders during the attack on Centralville. Reswan is a pragmatic person and ensures that the humans’ radios are destroyed after the attack so that they can’t communicate with their fellow colonists, as he’s particularly worried about aerial attacks. Reswan can’t speak much English and communicates with the humans using words he picked up from them. He eventually lets the human prisoners keep a radio dropped by parachute after confirming that it isn’t a weapon.
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Reswan Character Timeline in The Word for World is Forest

The timeline below shows where the character Reswan appears in The Word for World is Forest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter Six
Violence, War, and Colonization Theme Icon
...machine, and it dropped a parachute with something in it. An Athshean ex-slave and leader, Reswan, was worried about attacks from the yumens’ ships. (full context)
Violence, War, and Colonization Theme Icon
Nature and Ecology Theme Icon
...needs to talk with the yumens in the compound. They head to the creechie-pen, where Reswan asks for Colonel Dongh in broken English. Gosse comes out instead, saying that Dongh is... (full context)
Violence, War, and Colonization Theme Icon
Communication and Translation Theme Icon
...next day, the captive yumens in the creechie-pen ask to speak to Selver. Along with Reswan and a few others, Selver meets Gosse, Dongh, and three other yumens under a tree—Selver’s... (full context)