Genly Ai, the book&#x27;s narrator, is pretty sexist and arrogant.  He is repulsed and confused by the way gender works on the planet. He observes what he sees like an anthropologist from an &quot;enlightened&quot; Earth society, comparing their folkways to his own and finding them insufficient. The other Hainish Cycle books make it pretty clear that the Ekumen is not a utopia, and Genly&#x27;s faith in it is naive. By the end, Genly has a deeper understanding of Gethenian society, contrasted with his earlier arrogance.