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Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

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“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is a short story written by an American author Ursula K. Le Guin. Furthermore, the story describes the fictional city of Omelas as a Utopian Society where everything was perfect. Staring from the nature surrounding it, down to the people who live in it. Also, the plot mentioned that there is a child who sacrifice his/her being for the society. Which is a sickening bargain that is needed to be maintained by the individual for the beauty and happiness of the city. Moreover, the story is focused on how the people treats the child in exchange of a favorable outcome, which is their happiness. According to the narrator, the Omelas is a fictional city. “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in fairy tale, long …show more content…

“The child used to scream at night […] and it speaks less and less often” (108). Sometimes the child will speak to them in a hope of letting him/her out of the room, but they are not saying anything. Also, everyone in Omelas knows about the child, some of them have even come to see him/her. Furthermore, the narrator mentioned that the adolescents will go home while in tears or in rage. Also, she mentioned that some people who have seen the child decide not to go home. “Often the young people go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they have seen the child” (109). The situation of the child is disturbing and overwhelming. So, certain people leaves the city and go towards the mountain and never come back. Correspondingly, some people don’t agree and feel disgusted about the situation and how others treat the child. Also, they thought about helping his/her but they can’t do anything about it. Some of them already accept the situation as the child is hopeless anyway: “If the child were brought up into the sunlight […] that would be a good thing […] but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity […] of Omelas would wither and be destroyed” (109). So, they learned to just neglect the guilt that they feel for what is happening in the city and for the

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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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Yet there it was. ”(215) Guilt and emptiness can be seen as causations of each others in a vicious, relentless cycle. These two emotions may be inferred as 4F6’s punishment, which would imply she subconsciously recognizes the wrongness behind her actions. Arguable to 4F6’s prioritization of the preservation of her prototype, the author undertones the desertion of the child with moral incorrectness and inhumanity portrayed through 4F6’ guilt, which assists with the uneasiness projected throughout the

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Ironically, although Omelas is portrayed as a joyful city, each citizen searches for ways to escape their guilt of this child’s suffering. Some choose to escape into activities of the flesh and to escape into rationalizations while others choose to leave Omelas. No matter their coping process, no one ever truly is happy. At a young age, citizens are aware of the scape goat in their community; they at first aren’t sure what to think about the situation, but most eventually conclude that it is more important to continue in their own prosperity and goodness. They choose to selfishly neglect the child so not to risk the entire communities’ luxurious lives by attempting to save the child.

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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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“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin exhibits many mythic qualities by incorporating glorified fantasies with grim reality. Omelas is a city made of happily ever afters happy endings, where felicity flows from the foundations of society and is steeped in custom. Although While ignorance coupled with harsh law enforcement do not dictate delight, the happiness of Omelas comes with terms even more awful and absolute. From the loathsome existence of a contemptible child springs the bliss of Omelas. Nevertheless, the rules stand: if but a single act of kindness is extended to the child, all the joy of Omelas would perish in that instant.

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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

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