How The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Sparknotes

How the Other Half Walks Away from Omelas
In the short stories, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, by Ursula LeGuin, and “How the Other Half Lives”, by Jacob Riis, these two authors are able to shine a light on the injustice that is happening with humans in America. They both focus on things that is commonly overlooked by those who have enough to live comfortably. Riis focuses on real events that pertain to the slums in America, while LeGuin takes us to another world using her imagination to symbolically show us what we are doing to these poor people. LeGuin asks us what exactly is the cost to pursue happiness , while Riis wants people to help completely eliminate the slums because they are in no way fit for humans. Both of these authors

have a heart for the people who are being treated unjustly. They believe that the way these people are living is not how any human should be living. Riis and LeGuin use their writings to stir up emotions in Americans hoping that the readers will take action to help the people in need.
In LeGuin’s short story, she brings us to an imaginary town called Omelas.

This town is a town where everyone is happy and they have everything that they could ever need. They live such carefree lives all paid for by the sickly, little child locked up in the dark cellar. The people of Omelas are very aware that this boy is being starved and mistreated just so they can live the lives they are living, but they never do anything about it. They know that if they try to help the boy they will no longer get to live the joyous lives they were living before. These people turn a blind eye to the little boy on purpose so that the do not feel bad for what they are doing. Riis, on the other hand, uses real things happening in the slums in America. Instead of telling people what the slums looked like, he used photography. The people that live in the slums are the people who helped build America. These people came to America and helped make it a place of freedom, yet they get no freedom themselves. When Riis saw this injustice, he decided to befriend the people living in the slums and study them so that he would be able to show other Americans that were living in freedom what was going on in the slums. Both of these writings show people who are paying for the price of other’s

freedom.
By using pictures to show Americans what the slums looked like, Riis was most likely able to pull on the heart strings of more people.

He went above and beyond to make sure that the Americans that were ‘on top’ saw what it was like for those who were living ‘on the bottom’. LeGuin, on the other hand, did a great job at being descriptive so that people could see who the little boy was living in the dark cellar all alone. Riis is able to strengthen their argument that these humans should not be living like this by using the pictures that he put in his writing. In Riis’ writing, he said “The world forgets easily, too easily, what it does not like to remember.” By using pictures and putting them in his work, he put the injustice right there in people’s face. It is harder to forget an image once you have seen it, but easier to forget what you have

heard.
Both of these authors agree with each other one hundred percent. Even though LeGuin and Riis might have taken opposite roads to show people what was going on in society, they are both basically telling people the same thing. In LeGuins writing, just like the kid was being mistreated, these are real people being treated unjustly in America. She believes that people need to act now to end slavery and stop voluntarily blinding themselves from the situation just so they can live a little wilder and sleep a little better at night. Riis makes the argument that the people living in the slums are humans too and they need to be able to have a chance to live like the people who they helped build America with. Both of these stories can still be applicable in America today. There will never be a time in America when they will not matter. Humans are naturally evil and will always single out a minority just to get ahead. In today’s society there are thousands of homeless people living on the streets. The streets are not fit for humans to live in, and neither is slavery a way for other humans to live.
“The One’s Who Walk Away From Omelas” and “How the Other Half Lives” work well together to show one made up, and one real stories that are very similar with human living conditions and how people are not taking action to help those around them. Jan Schakowsky said “There is a lot that happens around the world we cannot control. We cannot stop earthquakes, we cannot prevent droughts, and we cannot prevent all conflict, but when we know where the hungry, the homeless and the sick exist, then we can help.” Riis and LeGuin help to make people aware of the things that are happening to these people in poverty, but they cannot make people take action. Americans know where the people who need help are, but it is up to them to take action and help these people.