The Word for World is Forest

by

Ursula K. Le Guin

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Thele Character Analysis

Thele was a native Athshean and Selver’s wife; she was enslaved in Centralville. Before the start of the novella, Don Davidson raped Thele, and she died during the assault; the novella suggests that she either died due to the size difference between her and Davidson, or she simply chose to stop living, something Athsheans have the ability do. Prior to the assault, Selver had remained enslaved at Smith so that he could stay close to Thele, whom Lyubov couldn’t manage to free. Thele’s death serves as the impetus for the novella’s events, because after Thele dies, Selver attacks Davidson, intending to kill him. This is the first act of violence an Athshean commits against a human, and Selver’s later attack on Smith camp is also an act of revenge, as Selver tells Davidson that Thele told him to burn the camp (implying that Selver saw Thele in his dreams). Selver continues to dream of Thele at the end of the novella, but these dreams are pleasant rather than violent.

Thele Quotes in The Word for World is Forest

The The Word for World is Forest quotes below are all either spoken by Thele or refer to Thele. 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:
Violence, War, and Colonization Theme Icon
).
Chapter Two Quotes

“Before this day the thing we had to do was the right thing to do; the way we had to go was the right way and led us home. Where is our home now? For you’ve done what you had to do, and it was not right. You have killed men. I saw them, five years ago, in the Lemgan Valley, where they came in a flying ship; I hid and watched the giants, six of them, and saw them speak, and look at rocks and plants, and cook food. They are men.”

Related Characters: Coro Mena (speaker), Don Davidson, Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis:

He went out to see what kind of trees they were. They all lay broken and uprooted. He picked up the silvery branch of one and a little blood ran out of the broken end. No, not here, not again, Thele, he said: O Thele, come to me before your death! But she did not come. […] Outside the other door, across the tall room, was the long street of the yumen city Central. Selver had the gun in his belt. If Davidson came, he could shoot him. He waited, just inside the open door, looking out into the sunlight. Davidson came, huge, running so fast that Selver could not keep him in the sights of the gun as he doubled crazily back and forth across the wide street, very fast, always closer. The gun was heavy. Selver fired it but no fire came out of it, and in rage and terror he threw the gun and the dream away.

Related Characters: Selver Thele (speaker), Don Davidson, Thele
Related Symbols: Davidson’s Gun
Page Number: 48-49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Four Quotes

The fact is, the only time a man is really and entirely a man is when he’s just had a woman or just killed another man. That wasn’t original, he’d read it in some old books; but it was true. That was why he liked to imagine scenes like that. Even if the creechies weren’t actually men.

Related Characters: Don Davidson (speaker), Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five Quotes

And the translator is the god. Selver had brought a new word into the language of his people. He had done a new deed. The word, the deed, murder. Only a god could lead so great a newcomer as Death across the bridge between the worlds.

But had he learned to kill his fellowmen among his own dreams of outrage and bereavement, or from the undreamed-of-actions of the strangers? Was he speaking his own language, or was he speaking Captain Davidson’s? That which seemed to rise from the root of his own suffering and express his own changed being, might in fact be an infection, a foreign plague, which would not make a new people of his race, but would destroy them.

Related Characters: Raj Lyubov (speaker), Don Davidson, Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Word for World is Forest LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Word for World is Forest PDF

Thele Quotes in The Word for World is Forest

The The Word for World is Forest quotes below are all either spoken by Thele or refer to Thele. 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:
Violence, War, and Colonization Theme Icon
).
Chapter Two Quotes

“Before this day the thing we had to do was the right thing to do; the way we had to go was the right way and led us home. Where is our home now? For you’ve done what you had to do, and it was not right. You have killed men. I saw them, five years ago, in the Lemgan Valley, where they came in a flying ship; I hid and watched the giants, six of them, and saw them speak, and look at rocks and plants, and cook food. They are men.”

Related Characters: Coro Mena (speaker), Don Davidson, Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis:

He went out to see what kind of trees they were. They all lay broken and uprooted. He picked up the silvery branch of one and a little blood ran out of the broken end. No, not here, not again, Thele, he said: O Thele, come to me before your death! But she did not come. […] Outside the other door, across the tall room, was the long street of the yumen city Central. Selver had the gun in his belt. If Davidson came, he could shoot him. He waited, just inside the open door, looking out into the sunlight. Davidson came, huge, running so fast that Selver could not keep him in the sights of the gun as he doubled crazily back and forth across the wide street, very fast, always closer. The gun was heavy. Selver fired it but no fire came out of it, and in rage and terror he threw the gun and the dream away.

Related Characters: Selver Thele (speaker), Don Davidson, Thele
Related Symbols: Davidson’s Gun
Page Number: 48-49
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Four Quotes

The fact is, the only time a man is really and entirely a man is when he’s just had a woman or just killed another man. That wasn’t original, he’d read it in some old books; but it was true. That was why he liked to imagine scenes like that. Even if the creechies weren’t actually men.

Related Characters: Don Davidson (speaker), Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter Five Quotes

And the translator is the god. Selver had brought a new word into the language of his people. He had done a new deed. The word, the deed, murder. Only a god could lead so great a newcomer as Death across the bridge between the worlds.

But had he learned to kill his fellowmen among his own dreams of outrage and bereavement, or from the undreamed-of-actions of the strangers? Was he speaking his own language, or was he speaking Captain Davidson’s? That which seemed to rise from the root of his own suffering and express his own changed being, might in fact be an infection, a foreign plague, which would not make a new people of his race, but would destroy them.

Related Characters: Raj Lyubov (speaker), Don Davidson, Selver Thele, Thele
Page Number: 124
Explanation and Analysis: