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Alicia Houth

English 102

Professor Batty

04 November 2018

Can Sexuality Identify Who We Are?

There has always been an issue of gender and sexuality in humanity and we’ve let that

define who we are and who we identify as. In both The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le

Guin and M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang share both issues. Hwang and Le Guin have

characters that are confused about their identity and soon unfold themselves in their own

adventures. Considering how both pieces were written in the 1970’s, the author’s purpose to

make the audience wonder about the characters and who they identified as, the challenges

throughout their journey and how they feel and view themselves at the end of their mission.

However, some might argue that the major theme of the texts could not be either but it could just

be another sci-fi novel.

A strong theme in both text is character identity. In M. Butterfly, we can assume that

Rene Gallimard struggles to find his true self considering that was the reason why he was having

affairs. In the article “Performing Gender and Fictions of the Nation in David Hwang’s M.

Butterfly” by Michelle Balaev, she talks about feminist Luce Irigaray and how she theorizes how

women are seen and used as exached of units. When Song pretends to be Madame Butterfly and

reveals himself to Gallimard in court, Gallimard is in shock and cries hysterically while Song

persuaded that he is still his “Butterfly”.

“Song: It’s still the same skin you’ve worshipped for years. Touch it.

Gallimard: Yes, it does feel the same.

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Song: Now-- close your eyes.

Gallimard: This skin, I remember. The curve of her face, the softness of her cheek, her hair

against the back of my hand…

Song: I’m your Butterfly. Under the robes, beneath everything, it was me. Now, open your eyes

and admit it-- you adore me.” (Hwang 89). At this part of the book, we can assume that Song

identifies as female because the author describes the relationship between them to be so tender

and soft because he treats the issue of sexuality to be free, for example he brings up the “white

Western man and Oriental women” relationship. He allows this relationship to happen even

though it is so forbidden. Similarly, in The Left Hand of Darkness, Ai discover towards the end

of the journey that he is less masculine and more androgynous because of he was influenced by

Estravens and the Gethenians beliefs. In the beginning of this sci-fi novel, Le Guin characterizes

Genly Ai to be so masculine, the text promotes hetero/ homo sexuality because the author creates

a world where there is only one gender- androgyny. I admire how it advocates androgyny

because it expands the fictional characters ability to explore themselves through adventure and

romance. Le Guin writes this story to show that love and romance is more than just physical

appearances, but we should fall for the ones who allows us to be who we are and vice versa.

Also, all the characters went through challenges throughout their missions. Some

obstacles in M. Butterfly would be Song’s role in convincing Gallimard that he was a women and

the reason behind Gallimard’s suicide scene. Considering that M. Butterfly was written in a time

period where the East Asian side of the world was going through changes politically and

socially, Hwang was able to treat the issue of gender and sexuality and race as part of that

change. Being able convince Gallimard through opera, romance and lies as part of being a

Chinese spy to trick Gallimard to deliver government secret information makes this play so much
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more capturing to us, the audience because it is something we are so accustomed to at this

generation. Most importantly, Gallimard's death scene was an important factor of sexuality. We

can question why Gallimard does this, is it because he’s in jail for treason? Or because he is

humiliated because Song, the love of his life has lied to him for the past twenty years? Or the fact

that he realizes himself who he is, he is Madame Butterfly. “ Gallimard: Death with honor is

better than life… life with dishonor. The love of a Butterfly can withstand many things--

unfaithfulness, loss, even abandonment. But how can it face the one sin that implies all others?

The devastating knowledge that, underneath it all, the object of her love was nothing more,

nothing less than… a man.” (Hwang 92). This play acknowledges the gender roles, power

dynamic, stereotypes and race because he does follow what the norm for them is, but also lets

this story take a societal change. He talks about Westernism and Orientalism, and power

dynamic in the relationship- with Song making Gallimard feel superior. In The Left Hand of

Darkness, there are many challenges but most importantly would be the idea of kemming and

the sinful suicide belief. Being androgynous beings and having a kemmering cycle where they

can mate, the author dedicates a chapter that reveals the forbiddance. We learn that Estraven has

a child with his brother Arek, and has a child named Sorve during a kemmering cycle,

unfortunately his brother commits suicide, one of Gethenians sins. He kills himself because the

rules of kemmering are so restricted, being able to “vow kemmering” when they swear to only

have sex with each other, allowing incest within siblings but not allowing siblings to get

married. Knowing that it is against the foundation of their beliefs, Arek kills himself causing

even more awareness that their culture is so confined. Another moment would be Estravens

death. We can call this a challenge because he acts on this sin on the behalf of his country and

for his love. We can assume that his suicide was for a few reasons, for wanting Ai to get to
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Karhide to persuade King Argaven to join Ekumen and because he knew it would work, he was

selfless because he knew that everything he did was to better his world and everyone in it. Le

Guin encourages gender, sexuality and power dynamics through the character Estraven because

he’s shown as a traitor, to a friend to a hero in story, he shows that he is selfless and that we

can’t limit ourselves because of who we are- how one man’s sacrifice could change humanity.

In all storylines, our characters always feel and view themselves differently at the end of

their journey. In M. Butterfly, we can definitely say that Rene Gallimard is different. We can

look at his death scene a few different ways, Gallimard can feel relieved because he finally found

out his identity- Madame Butterfly. We can feel his pain through his monologue, “Gallimard: I

have a vision. Of the Orient. That, deep within its almond eyes, there are still women, Womens

willing to sacrifice themselves for the love of a an, even a man whose love is completely without

worth.” (Hwang 92). Or we can say Gallimard’s suicide was shocking to us because it costed

him everything to recognize who he is. From the article “On Nusuth and Suicide: Thoughts on

Estravans’s death”, author states that even though suicide is ultimate sin to the Gethenian, it’s

hard to distinguish why Estravanas death was because of altruism or his love for Ai. In The Left

Hand of Darkness, Ai completes his mission to Ekumen, making him have a different

perspective and view everything in a Gethenian way. However, this victory of his made him

realize he is no longer a part of them or their world anymore. We used to view Ai with masculine

characteristics and someone who would of never adapted to the Gethenian beliefs but when he

goes to Estre, we realize that he isn’t the “earthman” anymore. Esvans wants to hear the

Gethenian story and how Ai and Estraven cross the ice together and Sorve wants to know more

about what other people and their worlds are like. We can assume that if these stories are told,
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that this is the way of combining Gethen and other worlds. So in Le Guin’s book, not only did

the characters change ot the end of their journey but also humanity.

Some might argue that in these novels that the theme of gender and sexuality didn't

influence these characters. Some might have thought that Gallimard and Song’s relationship

wasn’t a challenge because it was forbidden. And things that are forbidden have consequences.

Aside from that, it was being taken place during the Revolution. In The Left Hand of Darkness,

readers would of thought that the book was complicated and confusing and questioned why the

author written it this way, why the characters were androgynous and why they wanted to

combine their worlds.

In conclusion , the two texts M. Butterfly by david Henry Hwang and Left Hand of

Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin both share the important issues of gender and sexuality and how

that affects our identity. Both authors feel open to be able to express their characters freely and

promotes what our self identity can do with romance.Some major themes that I’ve learned with

these two are unity, humanity, romance, and diversity. Specifically within these two works, they

showed us a timeline with the characters whom they first identified as before their mission, the

challenges they’ve gone through and how going through those obstacles affected them after.
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Works Cited

PENNINGTON, JOHN. "Exorcising Gender: Resisting Readers in Ursula K. Le Guin's Left

Hand of Darkness." Extrapolation, vol. 41, no. 4, 2000, p. 351. Literature Resource Center,

http://library.lavc.edu:2102/apps/doc/A68704463/LitRC?u=lavc_main&sid=LitRC&xid=5428f9

5b. Accessed 6 Nov. 2018.

Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. New York : New American Library, c1988., 1988.

EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01148a&

AN=lavc.u235176&site=eds-live.

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness. New York : Ace Books, 2000, ©1969., 2000.

EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01148a&

AN=lavc.u576358&site=eds-live.

Balaev, Michelle. “Performing Gender and Fictions of the Nation in David Hwang’s M.

Butterfly.” Forum for World Literature Studies, no. 4, 2014, p. 608. EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=

edsgcl.398253065&site=eds-live.

https://sites.tufts.edu/skhanscifi/2015/11/05/on-nusuth-and-suicide-thoughts-on-estravens-death/
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Pearson, Wendy Gay. “Postcolonialism/s, Gender/s, Sexuality/Ies and the Legacy of The Left

Hand of Darkness: Gwyneth Jones’s Aleutians Talk Back.” Yearbook of English Studies, no. 2,

2007, p. 182. EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=

edsgcl.167030913&site=eds-live.