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= Ursula Le Guin by Brandi Hatcher = = =   Ursula Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber on October 21, 1929 in Berkeley, California. Her parents, Alfred who was an archeologist, and Theodora, a writer, both had a major influence on her writing. She graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College; a year later she received a master's degree in French from Columbia University. She then entered the doctoral program at Columbia University and received a Fulbright grant to study in France. While on the way to France, she met Charles Le Guin, and marries him in Paris in 1957. They returned to the United States with their three kids and they settled in Portland, Oregon. Le Guin published her first story in 1961, and a year later sold "April in Paris" for publication. Le Guin created worlds in her stories that shed light on human problems and explore gender issues. Her exploration of gender issues makes her popular among many feminist readers, especially during the time her novels were written. The characters that were her more successful ones do not try to win over the other characters by force but rather by being a model of what they desire them to be. From the beginning of her career Le Guin has used science fiction and fantasy to get her message across. Le Guin had a tendency to travel from the traditional types of fantasy and science fiction to using the readers mind to imagine different cultures and how they interact with each other. In her work technology instead of magic is the distinguishing factor of the story. Her best science fiction stories accept the unique technology as a given and center on fully realized character coming to terms with the problems or implication of that technology (Critical Survey of Short Fiction 4). The definition that she uses for fantasy is the control of myths and symbols to interact with the unconscious mind. Some of her fantasies she calls psycho myths, " more or less surrealistic tales, which share with fantasy the quality of taking place outside any history, outside of time, in that region of the living mind which seems to be without spatial or temporal limits at all" (Critical Survey of Short Fiction 5-6). Through her writing Le Guin is trying to engage her readers into understanding the world of science fiction. Also she tries to explain how a child matures into an adult and how it is determined that the line has been crossed. In her opinion a child becomes an adult when he or she is able to cease projecting evil impulses onto others and to recognize that these impulses are part of the self (Critical Survey of Short Fiction 4). To help her readers understand better, she uses animals to help the protagonist uncover their true being. She believed that using animals to show her readers how to discover their own identities was more palatable for readers than using actual humans. Le Guin believed that she could help humanity discover adulthood while not losing sight of the inner child. She used the principles of Jungian psychology and the ancient religion of Daoism. Jungian psychology says that thought consciousness, which is the part of the self that can be expressed in everyday language, emerges from the unconscious as a child matures (Critical Survey of Short Fiction 4). It is in essence shared as a collective consciousness between all humans. This is expressed in a majority of her works as a whole. The ancient Chinese religion of Daoism is also used throughout her collective works. The basis of Daoism as a whole is to be whole in the physical world as well as the spiritual. Le Guin consistently uses the symbolism of a circle to show this state of being whole. The circle of life is used several times in her novels to show the dynamic of being whole or not being whole. Throughout her life and career Ursula Le Guin used her real life travels and studies to show the world how they should live their lives and how important it was to be whole. She was a product of her time, using her novels to further the feminist movement of the sixties while still holding to her belief that as humans we need to be a whole being. Balancing the inner child with the outer adult was very important to her and this shows in her works. She was a very influential author and her works were revered during her time as well as today by adults and teens alike.   ** __Annotated Bibliography__ **  Cummings, Elizabeth. "Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin." __USC__ : 1990

 The book "Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin" by E. Cummings contains information on Le Guin's family, her achievements, and a sample of her works. The table of contents contains the names of the chapter, which are the subject for each chapter. I plan on using this information from this source for getting her background information and her achievements. The book needs a few pictures, because it was kind of boring. i would recommend this to other students because it is very straight forward and tells you the needed facts.

 Spivack, Charlotte. "Ursula K. Le Guin." __Literary Reference Center.__ 25 May 2008< [|http://search.ebscohost.com]>

 The database titled "Ursula K. Le Guin" by C. Spivack contains a brief description on Le Guin's background and a few critical reviews on her works. It starts with the background of her life, then goes into the bibliography and critisism. I did not use much of the information from this database because it was repetitive to the most of the information I had already gathered. I used a little bit of the information critical analysis to attempt to understand her vision. I would recommend this to someone who needs a basic, brief description of Le Guin. If the student is looking for a more detailed description, I would steer them away from this database.

 "Ursula K. Le Guin." __Literary Reference Center.__ 25 May 2008< [|http://search.ebscohost.com]>

 The database titled "Ursula K. Le Guin" from the __Critical Survey of Short Fiction__ contains background information on Le Guin's life, and also contains several critical reviews on her work. It gives her views and opinions, and the basis of her writing. I plan on using the information from this source the for most of my writing. I used some of the background information, and used a lot of the work that stated her reasons and beliefs for writing, and the critical reviews. I would recommend a little more descriptive background information. I would recommend this to other students because it is very helpful and gives a lot of descriptive information.