A Wizard of Earthsea

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-2

Reading Check

1. What kind of magic does Ged use to save Ten Alders?

2. What is magic tied to in Ged’s world?

3. What does the daughter of Rei Albi ask Ged to do?

4. How does the ship to Roke echo Ged’s destiny?

5. What is the inciting incident or call to adventure?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In what ways is Ogion Ged’s foil?

2. What themes has Ogion’s character mastered that Ged has yet to learn?

3. What is Ged’s internal conflict?

Paired Resource

“Some Assumptions About Fantasy”

• In her speech, which was presented at the Children’s Literature Breakfast in 2004, Ursula K. Le Guin explores her reactions to the fantasy genre as it is presented and commercialized to a mass audience, arguing that it is the writer’s responsibility to disrupt assumptions and explore themes beyond battles of good and evil.
• This speech connects to the themes of The Limits and Responsibilities of Power and The Importance and Power of Agency.
• In what ways does the story so far upend traditional fantasy tropes? How and where does Le Guin overturn assumptions about the genre?

Chapters 3-4

Reading Check

1. What does Ged need to master most?

2. What role does Jesper play in Ged’s hero’s journey?

3. What role does Vetch play in Ged’s hero’s journey?

4. What theme does Kurremkarmerrak speak to when he tells Ged about the power of language?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do the teaching approaches of the Master Changer and Master Summoner differ, and what does each master see in Ged?

2. In what ways is Jesper’s challenge on the Knoll a callback to an earlier event? What does this similarity show about Ged’s character?

3. How and why does Ged’s character change after his brush with the shadow?

Paired Resource

“Tao-te Ching”

• Heavily influenced by Taoism, Ursula K. Le Guin used her understanding of the teaching of Lao-tzu to inform the mysterious rules and workings of magic in Earthsea.
• The first two chapters of the Tao-te Ching relate to the themes of The Limits and Responsibilities of Power and The Importance and Power of Agency.
• What themes, ideas, elements, or stylistic aspects within the first two chapters of the Tao-te Ching inform Le Guin’s writing? How does exploring this source material help clarify and contextualize the fantastic elements of Earthsea?

Chapters 5-6

Reading Check

1. With what do Ged and Pechvarry complement each other?

2. How does the otak save Ged from the shadow’s first attack?

3. How is Ged’s maturity tested while rowing aboard the ship to Osskil?

4. What keeps Ged from returning to Roke?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What do Ged’s acceptance of the post at Low Torning and his later choice to gain passage to Osskil by rowing with the oarsmen show about his character’s development?

2. What is the underlying nature of Ged’s mistakes? What does he continue to do despite maturing in many ways?

3. How does Ged’s bargain with Yevaud signal that Ged has learned some of The Limits and Responsibilities of Power?

Paired Resource

“Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?”

• In this 1974 essay, Ursula Le Guin explores both the roots behind the outright rejection of fantasy as a genre of value and the value that the genre provides, ultimately concluding that while not factual, fantasy is true, and people fear the truth.
• This essay connects to the themes of The Limits and Responsibilities of Power and The Importance and Power of Agency.
• How does Ged’s fantastical story invite reflection on and understanding of the factual world? What elements of Ged’s story, his world, and its conflicts, struggles, and desires are true, even if they are not factual? What benefits might there be in learning from a fantastic character rather than from those living a life more like our own?

Chapters 7-8

Reading Check

1. What role does Serret play in Ged’s hero’s journey?

2. What do Serret and her husband Benderesk both hope to do with Ged?

3. What does Ged fear the stone of Terrenon will do if he touches it?

4. What advice does Ogion give Ged regarding the shadow?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Ged mean in Chapter 7 when he says of the Old Powers, “Ill means, ill end”?

2. What knowledge saves Ged from temptation at the Court of the Terrenon?

3. What does Ged notice about the shadow’s trick that left him shipwrecked? What might this foreshadow about the shadow’s true nature?

Paired Resource

“Monsters. They’re Us, Man”

• This 10-minute video from Crash Course explores the many manifestations of the monster in mythology and folklore, ultimately demonstrating that all monsters are symbolic, twisted versions of our own worst inclinations and actions.
• This video directly explores The Uncanny Double as a mythological and literary archetype.
• In what ways does the shadow gebbeth fulfill the role of monster in A Wizard of Earthsea? What specific characteristics and actions make it monstrous? In what ways is the relationship between Ged and the shadow similar to and different from other hero/monster stories from popular culture?   

Chapters 9-10

Reading Check

1. What service did Ged provide the builder of his boat Lookfar?

2. For whom or what does Vetch mistake Ged when he greets him in Ismay?

3. What role does Yarrow play in Ged’s hero’s journey?

4. What does Ged guess about Yarrow?

5. How does Ged defeat the shadow?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What reasons does Vetch give for joining Ged on his final journey?

2. What does Ged mean in Chapter 10 when he admits, “I was in too much haste and now have no time left”?

3. What is the symbolic significance of the location where the final confrontation takes place between Ged and his shadow?

4. In what ways does the shadow’s defeat subvert popular fantasy stories?

Paired Resource

 “Who Is a Hero?”

• Excerpted from the introduction of Peter R. Stillman’s Introduction to Myth, this source lists heroic traits and explores what makes a hero.
• Stillman’s traits connect to the themes of The Limits and Responsibilities of Power in addition to The Uncanny Double, which heroes inevitably overcome.
• The narrator implies that A Wizard of Earthsea is a story of Ged before he became a legendary hero, and yet the story itself borrows from the hero’s journey. Is Ged a hero by the end of the novel? Why or why not? What qualities, actions, and character traits make him either heroic or unheroic?

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