The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin

865 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," In "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," What symbolism is there in walking away and in the child

“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is a short fictional story written by Ursula K. LeGuin. Although this story contains many realistic characters and setting, there is an overall eerie vibe about the city of Omelas that makes the story unusual. Omelas is described with several vivid details that indicate the city to be a gorgeous place, yet it appears to be a sort of unrealistic utopia. After analyzing the story, it was evident that this story was written about people who are trapped in Purgatory trying to decide where to go next. Although never stated directly, LeGuin wrote this story intentionally about Purgatory, which is made clear by her use of the literary elements: imagery, point of view, and symbolism.
Throughout this short story, there are many instances of imagery that clearly demonstrate the idea of Purgatory being the setting for the story. One of the main images that is reiterated throughout the story is how wonderful, beautiful, and carefree Omelas is. Many descriptive words such as bright, sparkled, decorous, shimmering, and many more describe the scenery. Omelas is filled with gorgeous meadows and houses as well as a sea. With the usage of the many vivid images, a reader is able to picture and imagine what Omelas looks like; for many readers it is the perfect place. However, there is something about this persona that almost seems too beautiful and too eloquent to be true. Hence, why Omelas is Purgatory; a place where people cannot stay forever, therefore it is too good to be true. Not to mention, there is a line in the story that reads as follows, “They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates” (734), which paints another image. Although most may read this in a way ...

... middle of paper ...

...y represents so much more.
Undoubtedly, there is much evidence that supports the claim of the city of Omelas to be Purgatory. Point of view, imagery, and symbolism were all strategically construed in such a way to show that Purgatory is the setting in this story. Though everyone reads a story in different ways, with the previous literary devices justified, it is quite obvious and logical that Ursula K. LeGuin meant for this story to be about the short time before someone decides to either go to heaven or go to hell. Overall, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” includes unique usage of literary terms in such a way that lead to the overall message LeGuin intended for; Omelas is Purgatory.

Works Cited

Le Guin, Ursula K. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” Literature and Ourselves. Ed. Henderson, Gloria Mason, et al. Pearson Education Inc., 2009. 729-734. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Enormous Radio and Those Who Walk Away from Omelas

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    K. Le Guin writes, "Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast: The Ones Who Walked Away from the Omelas and The Lottery

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...though they were happy” (Le Guin 380) shows the reader that the Omelas were happy with their extravagant life. Le Guin states in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” that the “boys and girls were naked in the bright air” (380). An allusion to the Garden of Eden in biblical times, the nakedness represents the freedom, happiness, and utopian attitude of the people of Omelas.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas And The Lottery

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    This child was unwillingly locked away in a tool room under one of Omelas’ buildings. It cried for help, “Please let me out. I will be good.”(5), but no one ever replies. It was feared and neglected by the public. They came to see it, but only to understand the reason for their happiness. People were stunned with anger of injustice at the sight of it. However, they compared “that [it] would be a good thing indeed; but if it were done. in that day and hour all prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed”(6). They were too self-centered, and did not want to give up everything they had for one person. The success of the village depended on the tortured child’s

    Read More

  • Conformity in The Lottery, The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas and The Namesake

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abcarian, Richard, and Marvin Klotz. "The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas." Literature: the Human Experience. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin's, 2006. 357-61. Print.

    Read More

  • Leaving Omelas Analysis

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    The article “Leaving Omelas: Questions of Faith and Understanding,” by Jerre Collins, draws attention to the fact that the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula Le Guin, has not impacted Western thought despite its literary merit. Collins breaks his article down into three parts, the first explaining that he will “take this story as seriously as we are meant to take it” (525). Collins then goes over several highly descriptive sections of the story, which invite the reader to become part of the utopia that is Omelas. Collins states that when it comes to the state of the child and how it affects the citizens of Omelas the descriptions “may seem to be excessive and facetious” (527). But this is because Le Guin is using a

    Read More

  • The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all." This is an open invitation for you, the reader, in the short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." Ursula K. Le Guin is simply inviting you to become her main character. How might you accept or deny this malicious request? It is quite simple, really. To accept it is to read on, and to deny it is to disembark in the endeavor. The city of joy, your own Omelas, is developing continuously in your head. How sweet it is. The image of the bay surrounded by the mountains with Ursula's white-gold fire enchanting the air. Oh, and one cannot forget the tantalizing orgy custom fit to your most personal delights. Can you even begin to imagine the mere possibility of an association between religion and sexual pleasure without the possible deviance of human authority? It all seems nearly ovenvhelming. The fascination continues with every moment of lustful anticipation. One cannot deny their own perversion long enough to stop engaging in a plot that might encourage it. But there is a catch of course, for there is always a catch. This particular one is quite deviant really, for this city is a complete deception. It is a place of lamentation and punishment. It is a prison that simply provokes the archaic smiles described within the sentences. How best can one describe the goal of such a story? I believe I shall attempt to do so by describing the main character, you of course! You are presented with three stages and then you are given three questions. In the end, it will be your duty to determine the final event.

    Read More

  • Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    The city of Omelas is the most magical, idyllic place anyone’s imagination could possibly conjure. The people live happily, with everything they want and need, and most importantly without pain, evil, without monarchy, slavery, the stock exchange, the advertisement, the secret police and the bomb. Yet, the people are not simple minded, but rather are “mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives [are] not wretched” and “their children [are], in fact, happy”.

    Read More

  • The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas is a short story written by Ursula Le Guin. In her story, Le Guin creates a model Utilitarian society in which the majority of its citizens are devoid of suffering; allowing them to become an expressive, artistic population. Le Guin’s unrelenting pursuit of making the reader imagine a rich, happy and festival abundant society mushrooms and ultimately climaxes with the introduction of the outlet for all of Omelas’ avoided misfortune. Le Guin then introduces a coming of age ritual in which innocent adolescents of the city are made aware of the byproduct of their happiness. She advances with a scenario where most of these adolescents are extremely burdened at first but later devise a rationalization for the “wretched one’s” situation. Le Guin has imagined a possible contemporary Utilitarian society with the goal to maximize the welfare of the greatest number of people. On the contrary, Kant would argue that using the child as a mere means is wrong and argue that the living conditions of the child are not universalizable. The citizens of Omelas must face this moral dilemma for all of their lives or instead choose to silently escape the city altogether.

    Read More

  • The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to live their “perfect” lives, the citizens of Omelas must accept the suffering of the child. Making the right ethical decision is difficult, but necessary to end the injustice of the society. Failing to overcome the ethical issues in the city of Omelas is displayed through three different characters in the story. There are those who choose to ignore the situation, those who observe the child in misery, and those who feel that they must walk away. In the story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” characters fail to overcome the ethical issues in their society, and the reader is taught the importance of moral responsibility and the implications of the difficult task of making the right ethical decision.

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing Brave New World And The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    1532 Words  | 4 Pages

    In doing this it creates this idea around Omelas as this happy, peaceful utopian society that seems wonderful to live in. There are no cars or advanced technology like central heating or washing machines but the people in Omelas are happy and live in comfort and they don’t base this happiness on technology or possessions like today's society. This is because they life on the principle of what the narrator says in par. 2 “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary” but even though they people of Omelas follow this ideology, they still live a complex life like we do in our society. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” challenges our country's economic style of government from capitalism to communism economics. This is shown in the “economy is not based on competition - so no stock markets or advertisements” (James's, 93) for products that they make. This challenges our economic style of government because this is the total opposite of how our economy works, in a capitalist economy, anyone can start a business and with the right hard work they can become as successful as they

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...at the world of Omelas is not set in stone. By doing this it allows the story to have more of a fairy-tale aspect, instead of a hard-and-fast solid world. The tone changes sharply to flat, simple descriptions, showing that however the outside is glorious, the inside of this room never changes. It is this place and its horrors that allow the outside utopia to exist. This above all else is the only concrete thing about Omelas; whatever else is "imagined" above, it is dependent on this single moral choice

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and Sur by Guin

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Guin uses characters as the main symbols. In this story the child locked in a cellar is the most important symbol. This locked away child is a symbol for a scapegoat. The child is a scapegoat for all the wrong and bad that happens in Omelas. Omelas is only a perfect utopia because all the blame is put on the child. “They all know that 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, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

    2177 Words  | 5 Pages

    “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is a short story depicting the utopian society of Omelas. “Omelas” was written by sci-fi author, Ursula K. Le Guin, and won a Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction the year following its publication. A plot-less story, “Omelas” features a strong narrative voice that presents to readers a compelling ethical dilemma-- the perfect happiness of everyone in Omelas is reliant on keeping one small child in a perpetual state of torment. When Omelans come of age, they visit this child and are educated about its existence. They then make a decision on whether to stay in Omelas, knowing that the happiness of the city rests upon the suffering of an innocent victim, or to walk away from Omelas forever.

    Read More

  • Omelas Moral Dilemma

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    It leaves an impression of how beautiful and enjoyable it would be to live there. Everyone in Omelas seems to be living pure happiness all around. As the story is being told, there’s a sudden change from describing an enjoyable summer to a description of a dark place at the bottom of a public building in Omelas. Le Guin describes, “The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room. In the room, a child sitting. It could be a boy or a girl” (Le Guin). The child who is also considered as in “it”, is being held as a prisoner and left there to suffer. Meanwhile, everyone else few feet above are enjoying the presence of others and the Festival of Summer. The citizens seemed to be aware of the situation of the existence of the child, but people prefer to stay quiet. Perhaps they started to believe that the suffering of one child is the definition of a perfect society and later came to realize that it’s for the best if nobody talked about it or mention anything. As the story goes more in depth on how the child is living in a basement and the reaction of many people, we can conclude that is an act of utilitarianism which is a form of consequentialism ethics as well. As stated in the book Theory and Practice, “In other words, if a given choice leads to bad results, then the choice is morally wrong. If it leads to good

    Read More

  • One Hundred Years of Solitude

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on this earth (Marquez 417),” Gabriel Garcia Marquez makes these powerful last words in One Hundred Years of Solitude ring true. Marquez demonstrates through many examples that human beings cannot exist in isolation. In order for the race to survive, people must be independent. Examples of solitude are found throughout the one hundred year life of the Buendia family and Macondo. Solitude in OHYOS reveals both physical and emotional aspects by being shown individually, geographically, and romantically. Although they have no control over it, the intent of the characters reflects the want to remain alone. Their destiny signifies the forgotten and alone.

    Read More

More about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin

Open Document