WORKSHOP THE ISLAND OF THE IMMORTALS

A. Ursula K. Le Guin is an American writer born in 1929. Le Guin is known as a

master in the fantasy literature of the twentieth century although her works includes
also science fiction, realistic fiction, childrens books, books for young adults, short
stories, essays, poetry, screenplays, verbal texts for musicians and voice texts. As
the daughter of an anthropologist, her work is characterized for a big deal of
interest in human origins, evolution and society. Some of her works (of an
extensive collection) have been honored and praised with awards like The
American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, five Hugo
Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWAS Grand Master, The Kafka Award, a Pushcart
Prize and many others.

Between the various writers who have an important influence in her career we can
count J.R.R Tolkien for fantasy, Philip K. Dick for science fiction, Len Tolstoy,
Virgil and the Bronte Sisters for Western literature, Virginia Woolf for feminist
writers, Neil Gaiman and Iain Banks for futurism and fantasy genre, etc.
Le Guin has an important amount of successes. One of her most known fantasy
works are the books of Earthsea which have sold millions of copies in America and
England. Regarding science fiction, there is The Left Hand of Darkness which
treats with an investigation of gender roles, moral and literary complexity. Her
novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home are addressed to utopian
fiction genre.Her books for children, like the Catwings series have also became the
favorite of many.


B. Summary

The Island of the immortals begins with a woman who is looking for an explanation
of what the island of the immortals is and what is the mystery behind it. She began
her research in the Central Library of Undund where she found a description of the
Island of the immortals in Postwands Explorations, a book which was written a
hundred and sixty years earlier. It is about the adventure of Postwand, he wrote a
tale about an island where people never die, a place where nothing seemed out of
the way, except for the dreadful swarms of flies. In his visit to the island he found
the sinister proof of a disease called Udreba supposedly caused by the flies.

Another important piece of information she got was that the island of the immortals
was sometimes called as the Diamond of Aya because of the many diamonds
standing in the surface of the place and it was a kind of tradition to the islanders to
bury them as it seemed to be something shameful. Nevertheless, this island was
famous because of that, thanks to the forested and swampy properties of the
island, the diamonds were totally exposed in wet seasons producing the visit of
many people looking for them. This information did not decrease her interest on the
Island and as she could not find any other explaining information of it, her curiosity
overtook any risk it could represent, so she went to the Island.

In her way to the island, just when she was starting to regret her decision of visiting
the island of the immortals she got to speak with the ships captain. He assure her
that there were without doubt real immortal people on the island, he explained that
they were not born immortals, but they got this characteristic from the bite of the
island flies, it was a virus and thus, she should better be careful.

Once she got there, she asked to different people about the mystery of the
immortals till she finally found a person who got her to meet one of them. This
person told her that it was her family duty to take care of it, to feed it with milk and
barley broth, it could not see or hear, or die and it depend entirely on that persons
family. She explains how the buried diamonds were once immortals that when they
got old enough they ought to be buried to became diamonds. It was too sad to
finally know the mystery of the immortals, how they have to be feed, buried and
how they got to be diamonds.


C. Course: 11

Due to the complexity of the text, I think this tale can be worked with a group with
the highest possible English level at school. There are some lexical and
grammatical elements which should be work with people in the capability to
comprehend different structures and meanings. Besides, this text have some hide
meanings and messages that need to be analyzed with the critical thinking
students from eleven grade should have, as the fact of human beings becoming
immortals, the cares an old person needs, etc.

D. ACTIVITIES

1. Students must create a short story of the immortal that appeared in the tale. The
new story must answer to the following questions:
-When he was born?
-What did he do when he was young?
-Who his friends and family were?
-How did he become immortal? Was it by accident? How did he feel?
-How did he lose his sight?
-How did he end up with the Roya Family?

2. In a round table, students must do a comparison between the magic elements of
The island of the immortal and real life. What is the meaning of being immortal?
what do diamonds represent? What does represent the curiosity of the narrator?
What do flies represent? What is the meaning of a poor woman asking for
money to see the immortal in our context?


3. By groups of 4 people maximum, students must create a new different story with
the following words taken from the text. Once the story is finished, students must
play it for the other students.

Immortal
Island
Hunters
Swarm of flies
Putrid smell
Tribe
Bite
Ships captain
Disease
Lifeless