Genly’s last name is a “cry of pain”

All of chapter 16 was told from Estraven’s POV, which I found really interesting; it forced the author to describe a human being from the point of view of an alien. She did a great job in choosing which characteristics Estraven should find peculiar or wonder about, all of which seem completely normal to us as readers. Those passages where Estraven was contemplating the peculiarities of Genly’s (mankind’s) quirks or values were very good at making me think objectively about why we do the things Genly, as a representative of our species, did.

The part that most forcefully got my attention was when Estraven noticed that Genly seemed to be ashamed of crying. He mentions an irony that he had noticed; Genly’s last name, Ai, sounds like a “cry of pain” when spoken aloud, and this was the first thing Estraven thought about Genly when he heard about him. Genly, however, is ashamed to cry in front of Estraven. Le Guin seems to be suggesting that Estraven sees this as Genly being ashamed of his own identity.

I haven’t really been able to figure it out completely, but maybe this is a metaphor for how Genly feels being the only one of his kind on the planet. Maybe the idea is that Estraven exposed a deeper insecurity or inadequacy that Genly feels in his observation about Genly’s shame in crying. Maybe?… or maybe not.

Also, #KeepPounding