A Wizard of Earthsea Themes
Language
In A Wizard of Earthsea, language is power. We don't mean that in some metaphorical way, like, if you're good with language, you can convince people to do what you want them to do. We mean that lan...
Coming of Age
Ged's coming of age – his transition from kid to adult – is packed with drama: he fights off raiders, goes to a magic school, unleashes a shadow monster, defeats a dragon, and sails to the end...
Power
Let's start off with a little bit of trivia: Superman's friends Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen have both had their own comic books, but these weren't as popular as Superman's comic book. Why? Well, mayb...
Pride
Pride in A Wizard of Earthsea mostly means that a character thinks he or she is really great when really that person's just OK. Of course, Ged is the big example of pride in action. He starts off t...
Choices
In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged has to make a number of hard choices, and also has to deal with several situations where he doesn't really have any choice at all. In fact, in A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged...
Supernatural
Wizards, and dragons, and evil old stones! Oh, my! The world of Earthsea is full of supernatural elements. Luckily, our hero is a master (in training) of the supernatural. Or maybe we should say th...
Man and the Natural World
In A Wizard of Earthsea, there's no real separation between man and the natural world. Even though there's magic and all sorts of other supernatural things, everything is part of one natural system...
Friendship
How do you tell people that you're friends – a note on Facebook or in a yearbook? In A Wizard of Earthsea, characters tell each other that they're really good friends by revealing their true name...
Education
This might annoy you, but it needs to be said: Ged's education doesn't end when he gets out of school. Sorry, we're starting to sound like an after-school special. But education is a central issue...
Duty
In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged runs into one of the classic problems of growing up: he has to do some things that he doesn't want to do. Some of his duties don't matter all that much. Like helping hi...