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

In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, there are many ways that a reader can read these stories and see the differences between them. A further breakdown of both of these stories will show how they both contradict social classes and political ideologies of their time. Brave New World challenges societal structures by presenting the idea that a totalitarian style of government will create the feeling of peace and safety that people are looking for. At the same time “The ones who walk away from Omelas” is challenging political ideologies with what seems as a Utopian society that follows in the steps of a communist style government.

In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” the narrator

begins to talk about and describe the land of Omelas as this kind of fantasy wonderland with all of the colorful flags and streamers of silver, gold, and green.

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

want. So, in turn that means there is a stock market that records the bigger businesses gains and there are advertisements everywhere to make the consumer want to buy a company's product over their competitor which is good for the consumer because competition lowers prices and keeps bigger businesses in check. This is why America is seen as the Land of Opportunities for people because you can honestly become or do what you want in America with the right work ethic which is unlike a lot of other countries in the world. This communism style of economics is simply put that all production are owned by the people in common or by the government rather than having business being owned by individuals. This creates no competition because the government and economics are controlled by one political party which is why there is no monarchy ruler and because of this there are no advertisements or stock markets because there is no competition and the economy stays stable. Peace and prosperity like this always comes with a price and the price for Omelas is that one child must be locked away to be left alone or to be forgotten by many and to bear the peoples pain for them. In a way this is representative of the bad and ugly deeds that a country's government does in order to to keep their people happy and then afterwards the government will try to hide it or like Omelas put their problems in the basement to never see the light of day again. This is very comparable to how Hitler was seen by a majority of the german people as a saver because he took care of the german people by bringing them out of the depression and giving thousands jobs to take care of their families but at the same time there was a consequence with millions having to die for it but Hitler will try to hide it away from the german people. So the “Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” defiantly challenges our political structure showing all the happiness, how everyone has nice things and a comfortable life, no worry, and they are happy because of the way the government conducts things in Omelas and while it has its flaw they will face the other way from it because they don’t want to risk what they have to change it. Which is showing the flaws of how with a capitalist government there will be sadness, pain, poor people, people with better things, and more money but in this way everyone has more of a conscience and ready to change anything that they see as wrong to help make the world better.
In Brave New World the story starts off by looking at a building that states “Community, Identity, Stability” which is already setting the morals and importance of this civilization.

Further along there becomes more insight of the society and the readers can see that this society lives under a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of people's lives with just a handful of people that make up the leaders of a certain region of earth. This challenges our societal structure by showing how good they have it with all of their technological advances that are controlled by the government and they have become so advanced they can even do selective production and they create humans in test tubes. This is done to brainwash people to be happy with the caste they are placed into at birth from the lowest being Deltas, Gammas, Betas, and the highest caste being Alphas that have the best of the best. So, this working of a society brings up plenty of moral questions about whether this is wrong to take away all free will in exchange to give the people a completely stable society where everyone gets along, if they don’t know that there is a a different way to live? With our capitalist government that is fueled by the people there will be rich people and poor but with it all being controlled by a powerful government all of these problems can be taken away. In Brave New World every citizen is created by the government is what they see as a perfect image without disease,

deformations, and the same body features. So, because that they are all being created in a certain image it makes a stronger connection to how if no one wants to conform to them then they are not welcome like the Native Americans in the savage reservation. Which can be seen just like how whites saw themselves in the western expansion in America when they were taking Native American lands for their own use that “Genetic hierarchy, associating the white characters of the World State with civilization and genetic superiority” (Congdon, 91). This is all used by the World State to support their statement that the world needs this government in place to keep people happy, to keep stability to their life, and to not be upset about where they are in life because all free will is taken away from from them at creation.
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” and Brave New World both present a utopian society that are both controlled by a completely powerful government that control the economy and aspects of people's lives. In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” there is signs of there being a communist government which means that there is a single political party in control of the government and the economy which is turn gives the people the same things and stability. Brave New World has this society that is totalitarian where the government controls every aspect of life including the economy to create stability for the world just like Omelas. Both have governments that draw to a certain degree to how Hitler governed German during WWII. Hitler saw the the German race “Aryan” the master race with blue eyes and blonde hair and set forth to purify just how Brave New World has set forth to create every citizen to be perfect and anyone that is not them is seen as below them. Hitler also set forth to help the German people that getting them out of the depression but in order to create this stability for his people he did horrible things that he would try to keep the German people from knowing, just how Omelas has to keep the child in the basement in order for the many to be happy and to live a stable life. Both of these storie bring forth the idea that with a capitalist government there are problems with no jobs, depressions, poor, and those that will exploit the working people to get richer, so they present the idea that the way to counter this is a government that takes away these free wills in exchange for an easier life. This all raises the question of is it morally right to take free will away in order for all to be happy or to let people gain their place in life?