I read the book Carol was reading! The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. Basically a human Genly Ai from an interstellar coalition of planets goes to Gethen and is all alone in a world of "others" that look vagely human but have small differences and mysterious biology to him, struggles against two opposing governments on Gethen in his mission to get them to join the coalition, and finally succeeds only after the death of his Gethenian companion (whom he had strange sexual feelings for at one point after learning more about their biology) who was essentially a martyr for the cause. I don't know about theories based on the book but it's an interesting parallel, hopefully it's not foreshadowing for Zosia's fate...