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A character in The Dispossessed

Salas

Salas is an Anarresti composer who becomes Shevek’s friend.

The book

Cover of The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The DispossessedUrsula K. Le Guin, 1974

Two opposed societies reveal how revolutionary ideals can harden into conformity without becoming simple villains.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Salas is an Anarresti composer who becomes Shevek’s friend. He writes difficult music but finds that syndicates and audiences prefer work judged more immediately useful or communal. He hides part of his artistic life rather than openly abandon it. Salas helps Shevek see that conformity harms artists as well as scientists. His later fate is not given.

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