The Dispossessed looks into the mechanisms that may be developed by an anarchist society, but also the dangers of centralization and bureaucracy that might easily take over such society without the continuation of revolutionary ideology. In one scene, Shevek's daughter, meeting him for the first time, offers him "You can share the handkerchief I use," rather than "you may borrow my handkerchief", thus conveying the idea that the handkerchief is not owned by the girl, merely carried by her. For instance, the use of the possessive case is strongly discouraged. The language spoken on the anarchist planet Anarres, Pravic, is a constructed language that reflects many aspects of the philosophical foundations of utopian anarchism. The book also explores the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, that language shapes thinking, and thus, culture.
The novel details his struggles on both Urras and his homeworld of Anarres. He therefore embarks on the risky journey to the original planet, Urras, seeking to open dialog between the worlds and to spread his theories freely outside of Anarres. Shevek gradually develops an understanding that the revolution which brought his world into being is stagnating, and power structures are beginning to exist where there were none before. Yet in pursuing research that deviates from his society's current consensus understanding, Shevek begins to come up against very real obstacles. Īnarres is in theory a society without government or coercive authoritarian institutions. An oft-quoted saying in the book is "true journey is return.". The meaning of the theories in the book weaves nicely into the plot, not only describing abstract physical concepts, but the ups and downs of the characters' lives, and the transformation of the Anarresti society.
It incorporates not only mathematics and physics, but also philosophy and ethics. The physics of the book describes time as having a much deeper, more complex structure than we understand it. The protagonist Shevek is a physicist attempting to develop a General Temporal Theory. Before this, Anarres had had no permanent settlements apart from some mining. In order to forestall an anarcho-syndical workers' rebellion, the major Urrasti states gave the revolutionaries the right to live on Anarres, along with a guarantee of non-interference, approximately two hundred years before the events of The Dispossessed. The story takes place on the fictional planet Urras and its moon Anarres (since Anarres is massive enough to hold an atmosphere, this is often described as a double planet system).
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