They responded by protests across the United States where peaceful ends were not always met. The Vietnam War and the accompanying draft upset thousands of Americans, particularly those of draft age, who did not see any point to war.

Another parallel between the book and the Vietnam War is the protest that Shevek encounters on Urras. However, in the novel the two forces are actually engaged in conflict. Just as in the novel, the two sides are at war to gain control of new territory, Benbili in the novel, in order to impose their own political regime on the area. and Societ Union were engaged in a cold war in which neither side directly engaged each other in battle, but each took part their own share of aggressive actions such as an arms race and proxy wars. Most noticeably, the United States is represented by the capitalist nation of A-Io and the Soviet Union by the socialist nation of Thu.

Many definite parallels can be drawn between the novel’s extraterrestrial affairs and those of the Cold War involving the United States and the Soviet Union. In general the novel serves as a sci-fi metaphor for the infamous proxy war. The Vietnam War is one of the most important and identifiable influences on Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.ĭiscuss the parallels between The Dispossessed and the contemporary Vietnam war. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

The dispossessed an ambiguous utopia