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Omelas Quote Analysis

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Ursula Le Guin defines Omelas as a utopia where the citizens’ lives are never wretched. Le Guin captures her readers’ attention by describing the city’s beauty with the colorful scenery, events featuring games and horse riding, and the everlasting happiness. She does a great job of leading her readers into thinking this could be the perfect society, but leaves us with the question of satisfaction. According to Le Guin, “happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive” (p. 2). This quote means that there must be a balance for the society to succeed. The basic needs in life are considered as water, food, and reproduction, and the simple wants are “central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices” (p.2). The destruction to society could be one’s remorse for the child’s suffering. If one shows sympathy for the child and it is released from the basement, the city’s beauty and happiness will vanish. The child could represent selfless because its sacrifice is for the prosperity of Omelas. Le Guin explains that the society is a bargain between happiness and …show more content…

This quotes shows that the citizens’ emotions are affected by the child’s neglect. Omelas is suppose to be a society where citizens show no sympathy because it would jeopardize their freedom and lifestyle. The basement where the child resides frightens the citizens because it symbolizes how the society could be despondent, so they allow the child to be the scapegoat. I believe the title, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, is significant because it expresses people that are not satisfied in Omelas walk away to find their pure happiness. Le Guin does a great job influencing her readers into thinking that receiving happiness through others is not worth it. Therefore, Omelas is not a perfect

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This quote shows that Dick is longing to forget about the murders and move on with his life. Capote uses words like " Why the hell couldn't Perry shut up" and "He was Annoyed.. Annoyed as hell" to show Dick his antagonistic attitude towards Perry's level of concern. Though he secretly feels guilty about what happened, he wishes that Perry would stop bringing it up since that makes it harder for him to forget about the horrific event. With this quote Capote's is trying to reveal that Dick thought of Perry as paranoid and over dramatic.

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The child is forced into a small cell and is stuck in the cell for years. The majority sees the child as something that has to be a sacrifice in order for them to be happy. “They all know it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city… and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend on this child’s abominable misery.” (Guin 5).

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Lauren DeStefano said, “ 'dystopian, ' by definition, promises a darker story” (DeStefano). One may find this to be particularly true in Ursula Le Guin’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” when he is able to look past the happiness displayed proudly on the surface. Le Guin’s “Those Who Walk Away From Omelas” employs dystopian elements because the story, like other dystopian works, warns about societies with trapped citizens, living in a supposedly perfect city, who fail to question the structure of their society.

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

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436 Words | 2 Pages

In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The narrator defined Omelas as a Utopian city, where everyone in the city is filled with endless joy. The society that they have can be described as the perfect world. While everyone maintains a pleased life, there is a child that is mistreated by the town all to keep everyone happy with their lives. The child has to be locked up in a dark basement, where the child is feed every little and abused by the people in the city. If the child was not locked up and neglected the city could be in danger of losing that happiness, also in fear of the city being destroyed.

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1093 Words | 5 Pages

The author gives the reader the question of if he/she would be able to live in their perfect utopia if they had the knowledge that a young child was having to suffer in exchange. The possible political stance behind this work leads one to question it more and wonder if there is such thing as our own Omelas in maybe a smaller less harsh form. “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” is a very powerful work, and once analyzed, could potentially lead to questions about our presence in the world that we live in

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1509 Words | 7 Pages

The second view of happiness is that the happiness of an entire city is worth the suffering of one child. The people who go and see the child but don’t walk away from Omelas are the people that believe the happiness of a community is worth the misery of one

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946 Words | 4 Pages

This quote explains that death is very common in this society, especially among children. Children also may be seen as easy targets to those who are unstable. Throughout this novel, death and crime are very common. Unfortunately, negativity controls the majority of lives within this

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