Rhetorical Analysis Of The Child And The Shadow

Rhetorical Analysis “The Child and the Shadow”

Ursula K. LeGuin analyzes the psychological archetypes in her essay entitled “The Child and the Shadow,” in which she focuses her attention on one particular archetype, the shadow. The shadow archetype stands on the threshold of the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind, being what one may deem as acceptable to society and what they are comfortable with showing the world. On the contrary, the unconscious mind is the aspects of one’s being that they want to hide away, or not show because society would look down upon it. It is the psychological part of the human mind that gets pushed away or swiped under the rug so to speak. The shadow is basically any human thought, desire, or

feeling that a human hides away or suppresses due to the fact that society deems it unacceptable. LeGuin first demonstrates the shadow to the reader by retelling a fictional story by Hans Christian Andersen. It begins with the main character, a man, who longs to visit a beautiful woman he sees across the street from his house, but does not have enough courage to confront her as he desires. This want then becomes his shadow, which he jokingly tells to go into the beautiful woman’s house, not knowing that his shadow actually would. His shadow then separated from him, leaving the man to grow a new one. Years pass and the two meet up again; the shadow being much more knowledgeable, and the man falling short of supremacy. The dark tale ends with the shadow taking over the man and sentencing him to his final death. LeGuin recalls this story to prove to the reader how critical it is to be in touch with his or her shadow and to acknowledge every aspect of their true self.
Throughout the rest of LeGuin’s essay, she analyzes the shadow and how it develops in children, the connection it has with the fantasy and fiction genres, and the overall acceptance of the shadow in a psychological viewpoint.

She also incorporates the aspect of creativity and how he or she can unleash certain artistic abilities by coming to terms and confronting one’s true nature. LeGuin also studies and Carl Jung’s psychological ideas and theories and tries to communicate them to the reader in a way he or she can understand. She describes Jung’s philosophies around the shadow archetype and how it pertains to both the conscious and unconscious realm. In conclusion to her essay, LeGuin explains to the reader how denying the existence of one’s shadow is the practice of escapism and in order to truly connect with one’s inner being he or she must reflect on the true characteristics of one’s deepest and inmost self. In Ursula LeGuin’s essay “The Child and the Shadow,” she makes the valid point that children benefit greatly from the fantasy genre, due to the fact that the child’s shadow has not yet developed to the full extent of an adult’s and is still very vague; this teaches the young child to view his or her shadow in a new light and with great compliance, rather than disregarding their shadow and falling to the wayside of

escapism.
LeGuin focuses a great portion of her essay on the advantages of children watching and or reading the fantasy genre opposed to fiction or realistic fiction rather. She states, “I agree that children need to be-and usually want very much to be-taught right from wrong. But I believe that realistic fiction for children is one of the very hardest media in which to do it.” What LeGuin is saying here is that allowing young children to consume realistic fiction in any way is a harsh approach to guide them in learning what is perceived as right and wrong. On the contrary, she then states, “In the fairy tale, though there is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ there is a different standard, which is perhaps best called ‘appropriateness.’” What LeGuin means by this is that rather than depicting right from wrong as in realistic fiction, fantasies or fairy tales regard more of what is classified as appropriate, which for children, does not seem as rigid. The idea that the fantasy genre provides for better childhood development compared to realistic fiction is a very influential argument that LeGuin greatly portrays.
Young children have such fragile minds in the early stages of their development.

Everything they experience gets soaked up into their innocent, naive minds and the brink of his or her shadow is still yet undefined, considering young children have no inclination of what society deems acceptable and unacceptable. This time in one’s life is indeed viewed crucial by LeGuin. She states, “But I think that when in pre-adolescence and adolescence the conscious sense of self emerges, often quite overwhelmingly, the shadow darkens right with it.” This quote basically means exactly what it says; in the time of pre-adolescence and adolescence the shadow grows with the child’s self, and as the growing child starts to understand what society sees as unacceptable, the shadow also becomes repressed as well. LeGuin portrays this natural act as disheartening because children have many hopes and dreams that get swept under the rug that were once so pure and unbiased by how cruel the world can actually

be.
LeGuin speaks harshly against escapism and what it classifies as in the beginning of her conclusion. She says, “That is escapism, that posing evil as a “problem,” instead of what it is: all the pain and suffering and waste and loss and injustices we will meet all our lives long, and must face and cope with over and over, and admit, and live with, in order to live human lives at all.” What she is referring to is how evil, or the shadow so to speak, is posed as a problem and that it can be cured or has a solution, but LeGuin argues to the reader that the idea that evil is something that can be solved is quite ridiculous, to put it lightly. She states that, “in order to live human lives at all” one must except the fact that evil or the shadow is existent and inevitable and truly embrace the shadow that resides within.
In conclusion, Ursula K. LeGuin’s, “The Child and the Shadow,” covers many topics and issues that are present today based on the shadow archetype; she brings it all together to prove to the reader that the shadow should not be viewed as “bad” and is a key part in a child’s development.