The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin

To answer the question, How is the utopian society Anarres structured, one can attack it at many ways. First one can look at the cultural context of the time period in which the novel was written. LeGuin wrote The Dispossessed in 1974. One can argue that the community of Anarres was in inspired by the social movements of the late 1960's and early seventies. The civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the environmental movement, and the 60's counter culture or "hippie" values are all reflected in the culture and society of Anarres.

Anarres is a society of anarchists. The society was formed after a revolution and war against the centralized government and plutocracies of Urras. On Anarres every one was created equal because no one has any properties. With no intellectual and physical properties everyone would truly be free. This theory of no ownership also was the corner stone set in place to keep order on their planet. With nothing to own there is no greed, guilt or envy of another human or as Shevek put it, "Nobody has anything to rob" "if you want something you take them from the depository." This "hippie" counter culture value of the 1960's early 70's of communal property and sharing was the mind set and practice that the Anarres' community and culture was built on. The term "bother" and "sister" are used in relation to everyone on the planet, along with only one-word names; no last names, kept everyone in the same "family." The only form of `centralized government' on Anarres is the PDC and subsidiary committees. The PDC is in charge of imports and exports on Anarres, they were also in charge of all radio, mail and telephones. They ran all communications with other planets and Urras. Subcommittees were s...

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...rchal values, women have equal access to jobs, and a man's job does not determine where the women live. Many other feminist values of the later 60's early 70's are characterized by the Anarres utopia; there is no emphasis on physical beauty, women do not have to reshape or decorate their bodies (i.e.) women don't shave their body hair and little or no jewelry is worn. Along with the many feminist values anarchism values are also employed in Leguin's utopia. Anarres was built on the protest and revolution against centralized government. The view that, "most of humanities problems came from living under governments" was prevalent thought out the entire novel. Urras was perceived and quoted as "HELL" by people on Anarres. The overall theme "a man can not be free while living in the walls (or rules) of government underlies and structures the entire novel.