A scene in The Dispossessed that particularly stood out to me in the novel was when Shevek thinks back to the time that Saio Paie had taken him “shopping.” I use “shopping” in quotations here because this is a concept that is totally new to Shevek and his connotations with the concept are completely different from anyone living on Urras or anyone reading the novel for that matter. Considering that Le Guin is an American author, it is safe to assume that her own life more closely mirrored the values of Urras, since the United States is so driven by capitalism. By choosing to have the main character originate from another world, one where money and hierarchy does not exist, allows Le Guin to interact with society in a new way. Shevek offers a perspective that is unattainable for anyone reading this novel. None of us are truly unfamiliar with capitalism and it’s nearly impossible to look at Urras through an anarchist lens on our own. Shevek serves as a sort of literary device in this sense. He is the connecting piece between the reader and the message of the novel. This type of perspective – one that is so limitless – is something that cannot really be found in realist literature.
What I found most interesting about the shopping description was that while many things on Urras echo the values of the United States, they are often extremified. However this description of Saemtenevia Prospect which “was two miles long, and it was a solid mass of people, traffic, and things: things to buy, things for sale” (131). Nothing about this setting is widely different from what any of us are used to. Unlike many of the other features of Urras, we don’t interpret this scenario as anything weird or uncomfortable, but Le Guin is able to convey that emotion to the readers anyway because of Shevek’s perspective. The clothes that Shevek lists as being available for purchase is honestly quite satirical and, even though these categories exist in our world, when they are all listed out like this they do seem quite repetitive and unnecessary – perhaps even quite overwhelming hence the nickname “nightmare street.”
Another interesting observation Shevek makes is that “all the people in all the shops were either buyers or sellers” and the craftsmen were all “out of sight, somewhere else. Behind walls” (132). This is another truth (most of the time) that exists within our reality, but another one that we don’t really think about often. I’ve never found the concept weird while I was out shopping but when Shevek says “they had no relation to the things but that of possessions,” it really made me think about what sort of culture has been ingrained in us from day one. This idea of “possession” and the importance placed on it is something completely foreign to Shevek and it’s hard to imagine anyone who has been surrounded by it their whole lives being able to live in a world like Anarres and not go crazy.