Any person faced with the inaccuracies of their worldview will have a very difficult time reconsidering and correcting their ideas. This is especially applicable to Tenar who from a very young age was taught to wholeheartedly believe in the Nameless Ones and their religion. When her beliefs are finally challenged we see her experience a lot of fear, uncertainty, and denial. A quote from the podcast we listened to might capture what Arha was originally thinking. “They're like, but I hate this, but this is my identity” demonstrates how clearly being Arha was really difficult for her, but it was so ingrained into who she was that she didn’t know how to stop. Sparrowhawk  finally showing her the truths of her gods and who she is is what really convinced her. After accepting this Tenar feels as though a weight has been lifted from her, as though she’s finally seeing the world around her more clearly. In chapter 8, page 117, we get a very descriptive paragraph showing her experiencing all of these new senses after acknowledging herself as Tenar. “The golden fleck veered westward toward the mountains, out of sight. Sunrise gilded the eaves of the small house. Sheep bells clanked, down in the folds. The smells of woodsmoke and buckwheat porridge from the kitchen chimneys drifted on the fine, fresh wind”. These descriptions invoke feeling things for the first time, and if she was really reborn after reconsidering her identity. In the real world, rethinking might not always be as rewarding, but in general, it’s better than grudgingly sticking to an incorrect opinion that won’t really do you any good later in life.

Le Guin’s quote is very accurate when we look at the themes of our theme, symbol, motif pyramids. The theme is a real life, true, message that we can take away from this obviously fantastical book. For example, my most recent pyramid (for chapter 8) had a theme I really liked: “To truly find yourself you must look beyond the falsehoods of everyday life and discover your own personal truth and identity”. This connects to the ideas of question 1, specifically how we should rethink what we know and work hard to find our own truth. This, along with many of my other themes, is something we can actually think about and use in everyday life. For this specific pyramid my two motifs were freedom and truth, which are key in discovering your identity. I used birds as a symbol for Tenar, representing her newly gained freedom in contrast to her more confined life as Arha. While in reality there isn’t just a specific metaphor that represents our life, we can still connect to these things Tenar experiences and even see ourselves in her journey.

Arha’s identity is one molded by other people. She was taught who to be, what to believe in, even given a different name. Because of this we can claim that Arha’s identity is technically a fake one: it was created by others and doesn’t represent who she truly is. I can relate to this in the sense that I spend a lot of time trying to change parts of my identity for other people or because of other people. This is a problem that I think affects almost everyone in some area of their life. When your identity is made up of beliefs and ideas you only have because of others, then it isn’t your personal truth or your real identity. For example, in the past I’ve tried to do certain activities because others wanted me to. Being a dancer was never really part of my identity, it was something I did because others thought I should. The same applies to Tenar and her life as Arha. Basically, rethinking our ideas is great, but not if we do it just because other people want us to.

Great beginning of the discussion, I like how you used the idea of being open minded in connection to the text

Use more textual evidence next time (specific quotes or page numbers)

Good eye contact

Next time you speak maybe add a question to keep the conversation going or build off someone else's ideas to expand your own thoughts

Good citing specific textual evidence, but you could have spoken a bit more on that