Ursula Le Guin is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction. Her story “The Lathe of Heaven” is regarded as a science fiction novel. Traditionally, this genre describes a kind of fantastic idea or fantastic world connected with science and technique development. The author herself puts emphasis on social and anthropological aspects of human being; her works describes people first of all and are of humanitarian significance.
So, The Lathe of Heaven also touches some important issues. Ursula Le Guin in this story criticizes the philosophy of utilitarianism and behaviorism. These scientific and philosophical approaches, according to Le Guin, consider a human entirely like an object and reject non-materialistic factors of human’s behavior and actions.
In return, Le Guin concentrates on her characters, making them eloquent and symbolic. George, a simple working man, introverted is unusually strong and honest – he is the main hero. Heather, strong and resistant woman, is caught with this inner strength. Dr. William Haber, confident and extroverted, talented psychiatrist, though he should have paid attention to George’s arguments. These characters are in the center of the story when world processes are in the background. The author shows that people are always in chief. This statement may be interpreted in two ways: 1) as an appeal to everyone to take responsibility and think over their own deeds; 2) as an appeal to those who reject people’s spirituality to take this feature into account.
The author touches such important problems as racism and Egypt-Israel relations. In both cases the U.S. is highly engaged. Though these conflicts last for years and there have been many victims. Dr. Haber tries to solve these problems, but synthetic order and one skin color for everyone doesn’t seem to be the best way of appeasement. The key is in our minds – we should not be too much prejudiced about our differences but we should rather appreciate them. The world would be boring without such diversity as it may be observed from the story. The beauty is not in artificial brightness – it is in real originality.
The issue of technological and scientific development is in the center as well. Such progress may give answers for many questions and to open all the hidden thoughts and discover subconsciousness. However is it the right way? Ursula Le Guin in this story says the outcomes may be different so that new researches and technological achievements should be used for everyone’s needs and welfare.
One more aspect – our planet. It is quite exhausted nowadays. For how long it will serve us? It depends on our awareness about the problem. We should take care about our home for not to make the worst predictions realize. The Lathe of Heaven is highly philosophical and actual story that touches important questions and emphasizes the most important things, and especially emphasizes a human.
