The Second Wave: Cold and Lonely

How does the constant cold of Gethen contribute to the theme of isolation and loneliness?

          When we hear the word warmth, we think of the time we hug our parents or recall a happy memory that we share with someone, that warm oozy feeling that lingers with us whenever we think of those memories. Scientifically speaking, warmth means there is presence of heat, and when heat is present, the atoms inside our body and all around us start to move vigorously bouncing off against each other as if they are dancing and having fun together. The mention of heat and warmth alone sends comfort and excitement jolting down through our spine. However, cold is heat's opposite twin. Cold is the absence of heat. When there is no heat, the particles, molecules all around us stays in one place unable to move as if they are lifeless, dead, sad, and lonely for they are not able to interact with each other any longer. Cold brings no joy nor excitement, but loneliness and the reminder of Death. Authors usually attach the word cold to their story to give the readers that grim, and depressing moods, or show the readers what the character is feeling. As in the story "Left Hand of Darkness", Ursula K. Le Guin uses the constantly cold weather of Gethen to reflect Genly Ai's feelings of isolation and loneliness. Often time Genly associates his constant isolation, and loneliness with the weather of Gethen, for instance, when Genly broods over his stay in Karhide"...months and months of unrelenting cold, sleet, ..., cold inside, cold outside, cold to the bone and the marrow of the bone. And all of that time on my own, alien and isolate without a soul I could trust" (133). It shows how he feels within Karhide, lonely and cold. The brutal cold weather in Gethen only creates a darkness that surrounds him, a void that fills with nothing but a stranger alone in his own sort of isolation, and torture.