Le Guin's 1986 essay "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" is a critique of the traditional idea of the hero in storytelling
Human history, or so conventional wisdom goes, is a story of violent, merciless competition. We have come to embrace the idea that a succession of one thing defeating another literally is history, whether that’s between species, political leaders, or conflicting ideologies. In our inherited notion of human history, our caveman — and he is always a man — comes home from a hard day on the plains with a wildebeest or a deer slung over his shoulder.
Questioning the spear’s phallic, murderous logic, instead Le Guin tells the story of the carrier bag, the sling, the shell, or the gourd. In this empty vessel, early humans could carry more than can be held in the hand and, therefore, gather food for later.
shifting the way we look at humanity's foundations from a narrative of domination to one of gathering, holding, and sharing.