Similarities Between Harrison Bergeron And The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

The perspectives introduced by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” consist of extreme conditions that depict the future of a perfect world. Vonnegut Jr. and Le Guin’s stories involve the futuristic, utopian societies that later mutate into the complete opposite of what originally started as the ideal community. “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” also include the corruption and the negative change that anger the authorities due to a specific individual that lives within the community. Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have excessively significant symbols that surface, revealing people’s intense desires

The concept of totalitarianism is a strong symbol among stories of utopian societies because each person sees and acts toward each other as an equal without fluctuating standards or immense change unless the authoritative figure that runs the society allows it. The two authors write their stories as a way of showing the message behind a perfect world. Although the society may seem perfect, there is no such thing as perfection. Within perfection, laws, citizens, and everything else in between continue to be laced with blemishes that will remain as a part of society

Although there is no climactic downfall like the event in “Harrison Bergeron,” the corruption is embedded into the soul of a young child in a cellar, away from the public eye. Instead of an individual who attempts to break apart from the robotic equality in society, Le Guin’s story involves an individual who has no strength to retaliate against all the immoral injustice that is thrown onto him by the brainwashed citizens of a “utopian” society. Le Guin starts off her story as a jubilant festival filled with the wonderful things in life, including amazing sex, insane drugs, and a life filled with eternal happiness in Omelas; however, the story takes a dark turn as the truth is uncovered. We discover the grotesque fact behind the playful bliss in Omelas as Le Guin brings a young child into the story that is hidden in a dark cellar, being fed the negative consequences of a perfect civilization while everyone else lives carefree lives. The citizens of Omelas are aware of the child; yet, they choose to ignore the treacherous and unethical consequences that are bestowed upon the child as a result of a utopia. Rather than having all citizens suffer from their own consequences, people of Omelas would rather place all their consequential outcomes onto the child, a single