Education and content warnings
The Dispossessed is an engaging work of utopian fiction appropriate for many teens and advanced tweens. Its language is not difficult, although it does contain mature themes and passages that may be challenging or disturbing for some readers. The novel includes a few instances of strong language (profanities), as well as brief but frank references to sex, embodiment, childbirth, bullying, suicidal feelings, and violence. Chapter 7 ends with a brief but explicit scene of sexual assault (two pages in length, pp. 229-31), and Chapter 9 describes police gun violence that ends in suffering and death (pp. 301-07).
Le Guin explores these topics because they raise crucial questions surrounding the meaning of intimacy, freedom, and community. However, readers can still understand and enjoy her inspiring worldbuilding if they skip these sections.
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See below for: a more detailed list of chapters and passages from the novel containing sensitive content
Chapter 2
Shorter Segments
Chapter 2 - Bullying/ confinement, Sex and sexuality, Violence/ suffering
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Bullying/ confinement: On ‘playing prison,; from “Tirin smiled arrogantly” to the section end (38-40)
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Sex and sexuality: General references to Shevek’s and other Anarresti teenagers’ early sexual involvements (51-55).
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Violence/ suffering: On a dying burn victim (62; 1 paragraph, beginning with “‘There was a man’”)
Chapter 4
Shorter Segments
Chapter 4 - Suicidal feelings/ mental illness
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125; last paragraph of the chapter
Chapter 6
Shorter Segments
Chapter 6 - Sex and sexuality
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General references to sexual involvement: gay (172; 1 paragraph beginning “They met again”) and straight (183; 1 paragraph beginning “Intimacy, after long solitude”).
Chapter 8
Shorter Segments
Chapter 8 - Childbirth
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Provides a physically explicit 1-paragraph account, beginning with “He could not look on such work” (242-43).
Chapter 10
Shorter Segments
Chapter 10 - Sex and sexuality
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​Brief metaphorical description of sexual intimacy, beginning with “They went back to Domicile Eight” (322; 1 paragraph).
Chapter 7
Explicit Segments
Chapter 7 - Sexual assault
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A physically explicit account, from “He took hold of her and kissed her mouth” to the section end (229-31).
Chapter 9
Explicit Segments
Chapter 9 - Violence
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Police actions and shooting, from “the noise of the rotating vanes” to the section end (301-02).
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Wounding and death from loss of blood, from “He realized it was impossible” to the end of the chapter (302-07).