The Dispossessed

by

Ursula K. Le Guin

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Dispossessed makes teaching easy.

Mitis Character Analysis

The senior physicist at the Northsetting Institute. She is a compassionate and involved teacher, and attempts to warn Shevek about the possible pitfalls of working with Sabul: she tells Shevek that if he goes to work for Sabul, Shevek will be “his man,” making use of a possessive article which is nonexistent in Anarresti language.

Mitis Quotes in The Dispossessed

The The Dispossessed quotes below are all either spoken by Mitis or refer to Mitis. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Freedom Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Take care in Abbenay. Keep free. Power inheres in a center. You’re going to the center. I don’t know Sabul well; I know nothing against him; but keep this in mind; you will be his man.”

The singular forms of the possessive pronoun in Pravic were used mostly for emphasis; idiom avoided them. Little children might say “my mother,” but very soon they learned to say “the mother.” Instead of “my hand hurts,” it was “the hand hurts me,” and so on; to say “this one is mine and that’s yours” in Pravic, one said, “I use this one and you use that.” Mitis’s statement, “You will be his man,” had a strange sound to it. Shevek looked at her blankly.

Related Characters: Mitis (speaker)
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Dispossessed PDF

Mitis Quotes in The Dispossessed

The The Dispossessed quotes below are all either spoken by Mitis or refer to Mitis. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Freedom Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Take care in Abbenay. Keep free. Power inheres in a center. You’re going to the center. I don’t know Sabul well; I know nothing against him; but keep this in mind; you will be his man.”

The singular forms of the possessive pronoun in Pravic were used mostly for emphasis; idiom avoided them. Little children might say “my mother,” but very soon they learned to say “the mother.” Instead of “my hand hurts,” it was “the hand hurts me,” and so on; to say “this one is mine and that’s yours” in Pravic, one said, “I use this one and you use that.” Mitis’s statement, “You will be his man,” had a strange sound to it. Shevek looked at her blankly.

Related Characters: Mitis (speaker)
Page Number: 58
Explanation and Analysis: