Reinterpreting the Discernment of Mortality and Immortality in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Farthest Shore

Abstract

This paper explores the primary notion of the mortality and immortality in respect to life and death in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Farthest Shore. The novel’s theme of death can also be seen as a coming-of-age, but on a deeper level, it represents the process of embracing one’s own mortality through that voyage into the abyss below ground. The moral and social integration of death is implied in this novel. To connect Le Guin’s figurative The Farthest Shore with preexisting, theoretical considerations, it is necessary to first analyse the concept of the abyss, which symbolises the encounter with death and the required symbolic voyage. It is paradoxical that childhood will come to an end with the realisation of death, and that a new life truly begins with this realisation. Human life on Earth is becoming unbalanced due to either birth without death or death without birth. Life expectancy is okay, but immortality is not. When it comes to the idea of the dead, it is untrue. Furthermore, humankind’s quest to defeat death and attain deathless life is what causes the war. Fantasy is all that is needed to deal with this concept. The reason for this is that throughout the many millennia of human history, there is no proof of immortality. Regardless of their social, political, or spiritual standing, people inevitably die after birth. The novel uses fantasy since it is necessary to go into such a speculative theme.