The Word for World is Forest

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1972

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Character Analysis

Captain Davidson

Captain Davidson is unapologetically hostiles toward the native Athsheans, whom he calls creechies, a derogatory term. Even though Earth humans and Athsheans have evolved from the same ancestry, he does not consider Athsheans human, citing their differences in appearances and mannerisms. Davidson’s worldview is in line with those of all racists and racist regimes. The Athsheans disgust him, and he believes that the humans have a duty to eradicate them and take their resources. Davidson is confused after Selver, the husband of an Athshean woman he rapes, spares his life after he leads an attack on an Earth human camp, but it does not make him repentant. He continues attacking Athshean settlements even after the other human officers have agreed to a truce. Davidson sees this as evidence that his former co-officers are race traitors. During his final attack on the natives, his airship crashes. He is taken captive by Selver and stranded on an uninhabited, treeless, lifeless part of the planet. At no point is he shown to have changed his mind about the Athsheans or to feel any remorse for his actions.

Raj Lyubov

Lyubov is Selver’s human friend. He is an academic who feels that the coerced labor the humans force upon the Athsheans is immoral and unnecessary. He learns Selver’s language and the two of them teach each other about their people and worlds. The more time Lyubov spends studying the Athsheans, the more convinced he grows that the human presence on their world is wrong. His compassion—as well as his intellectual approach to ethics—disgusts Davidson, who sees Lyubov as barely better than one of the Athsheans. Lyubov is killed during the Athshean attack on the Earth human camp of Centralville, but he continues to exist in Selver’s dreams. When the humans leave the planet at the end of the novel, Lyubov’s anthropological writings are given to the humans, allowing him to continue to exert his influence through his work.

Selver

Selver becomes the leader of the Athsheans after heading the attack on Smith Camp. After his wife, Thele, is raped and killed by Davidson, he attacks Davidson but lets him live, singing ritualistically over him instead of taking his life. After his role in the attack on Smith Camp, Selver is referred to as a god by his people. His every command is followed, and he is seen as a savior figure who will help expel the colonizers from their planet, saving his people and the forests in the process. Selver is conflicted by the knowledge that, while he has expelled the humans, he has also brought the concept and reality of murder into his people’s lexicon. As the story ends, the planet has been returned to his people. But he is saddened. The fact that the Athsheans now know how to kill makes him aware that there is likely to be more killing, whereas, before the humans came, murder was unknown. He understands that his victory may have come at a greater cost than he will know.