The Word for World is Forest

Ursula Le Guin had many influences when writing The Word for World is Forest, one of which was the Vietnam War. Written and published during the Vietnam War, Ursula Le Guin was heavily against the Vietnam War and modeled the struggle between the creechies and the humans after the struggle between the Vietnamese and the Americans. She creates an ideal situation for humanity, while at the same time recreating the struggle of a foreign power invading and trying to take over another people’s land. For humanity in The Word for World is Forest, racial and national tensions have eased and having mostly been eradicated, with different races of people working together. At the same time, however, the creechies are subjugated to hard labor, slavery, and are treated less than human. They are seen as inferior to humans, and were treated as such. This recreated the mentality that many American soldiers had towards the Vietnamese during the war, which was what Ursula was trying to get across. It is interesting that even though the book takes many years in the future, old human customs and thinking still exists such as imperialism and slavery.