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Success is not the key to happiness
Introduction of happiness and success
Introduction of happiness and success
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Would you sacrifice the happiness of another for your own happiness? Would you turn your cheek to a child in need if it would renounce your own rapture and change your life completely? Unfortunate to the way I was brought up and to my usual standards of thinking, I would have to answer these questions with a saddened "yes." I must admit that my happiness, my success, and my prosperity are most important to me. These are the aspects of my life that I care most about. Not a day goes by where I don't think about the future, hope to be successful, and scare at the thought of life after college. My future encompasses the majority of my daily thoughts and actions and I would not sacrifice my chance at a decent posterity for anything, not even a child in need of my avail, no matter how great the need. I care very much about my life as a whole and want it to flourish to great extent. I have always been a very career-oriented person and my future is what is most important to me. I am willing to do whatever it takes to strive. I am willing to work hard and struggle towards my goal, no matter how difficult the feat. I believe my biggest talent to be my voice, and therefore do everything possible to be active in that field of study. I want nothing more than to succeed in life, and I would like to do this with that which showcases and makes evident my ability and talent. I feel that this, for me, lies in singing, and my ability to perform. Theref...
"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.
In October 1973, Ursula K. Le Guin published her award-winning work – “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” – in New Dimensions 3, a short story anthology edited by Robert Silverberg. She described it herself as having “a long and happy career of being used by teachers to upset students and make them argue fiercely about morality.”
Is a utopia possible in a human society? The article, “Mimetic Desire and the scapegoat” by Brian Mcdonald describes how humans are intertwined with mimetic desire and scapegoats. Mcdonald gives an example of three children who display both of these features. The short story, “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le is about a town of which is considered happy and joyful, but at the cost and misery of one child. Then, there are those who leave and never come back to Omelas. Both of these stories are laced into one another. As humans a utopia or a perfect society cannot exist due to the reasons that define us as, “human.”
In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” published in 1973, Ursula Le Guin portrays a city without sorrow, misery, and jealousy. The city reveals an enormous amount of happiness and joyfulness; everyone is happy, healthy, the weather is perfect, music is great, and the overall quality of life is great. It is a city filled with elegance, beautiful scenery, and yet is quite simple. While reading the reader can catch the sense that Le Guin is trying to portray a utopian society. The only problem however, utopian societies do not exist. Coincidently, there is in fact something terrible; a child who is being sacrificed. He is being forced to live a harsh life for the sake of the people’s happiness and the idea that happiness comes with a price to pay is brought forth.
At a time where the future has never looked brighter, it is baffling how some people have become more pessimistic than ever. Why do people who are faced with traumatizing situations always seem to focus on the negatives? Why is it that when people are faced with despair, they always seem to rely on how the situation looks repugnant? Science fiction stories have a tendence to show all these questioning thoughts. There are many key details in the science fiction short story book titled Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century that shows pessimism and has a negative tendency of expecting the worst from life and how people treat each other. This is certainly shown in the acts of communication, isolation, and hopelessness.
The short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin's is a story about a joyous city with a small town feel, or is it. The story takes place during the Festival of Summer. Children ride decorated horses in races and are seen playing in the fields, in their bare feet. The day is sunny and bright with music filling the air. On the surface, Omelas appears to be a quite waterfront community with pleasant citizens “merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked” (512). LeGuin’s describes the citizens of this small community as “not simple folk, though they were happy” (512). If fact, the citizens of Omelas are smart and cultured. As the story unfolds, the truths about Omelas begin to surface; drooz is introduced as well as the child that all know about, wish to forget about, but need.
As I reflect on my extracurricular and academic activities, I see the essence of my future. I want to attend a great university (like the University of Texas); I want to work hard to become a nurse—a person who has devoted his or herself to caring for the well-being of others.
People in society strive to find happiness in ones self, others and their community. What factors are there to obtain ultimate happiness in one’s life? What ethical decisions does one have to overcome to obtain this supreme happiness that every individual endeavours? The citizens of Omelas have a difficult time achieving the goal of making the right ethical decision. In exchange for their ultimate happiness and success, is one child’s misery. In order to live their “perfect” lives the citizens of Omelas must accept the suffering of the child. To make 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 to make the right ethical decision.
Ursula Le Guin’s piece, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, depicts a conflict between the utter happiness of a whole society and the suffering of a single child. Within the piece, an adolescent is locked in a small closet in exchange for complete happiness and health of the rest of those present in Omelas society. The child is not aware of what goes on in the society outside but society is well aware of the small child and the terms and conditions that come with his incarceration. This roots the dilemma of keeping the child locked away for the sake of everyone else’s happiness or letting him out to allow him to achieve happiness. The use of a scapegoat for the wellbeing and happiness of those surrounding exemplifies the idea of ethical dilemmas present in this piece.
If I were a resident of the city of Omelas in the short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, I would not walk away. The people who walk away are taking a step in the right direction by walking away, but they are not actually solving the problem because that child is still locked in the basement. In addition to this, walking away does not ensure in any way a better life. In fact, it is unlikely that they would even have a future at all, as seen in the quote “The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness...it is possible that it does not exist.” (pg. 4, Le Guin.)
The warm, balmy rays of sunshine bathe you and the subtle but mighty ring of church bells circulate across the city while you saunter on the sidewalk toward the promised land, the city of your dreams. In “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, a short story by Ursula Le Guin, this land of milk and honey is the city of Omelas, a seemingly impeccable city with a dreadful revelation, a neglected child amidst filth in a basement. The people who visit this child feel anger since the child can’t be liberated or else the city’s happiness and the city itself will crumble, so most people come back to their residence upset and in rage, while others simply walk away from the city and never return. In this story, Le Guin signifies that evil is the source of all good through the use of situational irony, foil, and characterization.
I feel that all successful people must make a major positive contribution to the world in some way during their lifetimes. Not everyone can do this, however, and it seems that your view on life has a major effect on your ability to do so. I hope that while developing my skills I also will develop the mindset required to make a major contribution to the world. Ultimately, I think that if I continue to participate in extracurricular activities and courses that hone my knowledge and skills I will be able to have a successful career as a computer engineer, and eventually have an impact on the world for the greater good.
Imagine a world without description, no taste, just bland. That is what the world would be like without Speculative fiction. Specualtive fiction ask the question what-if? There are two main types of speculative fiction: Science fiction and Fantasy fiction. Science fiction explorates or pushes the mind in to the future like flying cars and robot maids.
My personal vision of the future is not something I have taken a significant amount of time to ponder in the past. I have general ideas of where I see myself both personally and professionally in future but have not identified specific steps to get there or pondered why I want to be in that situation. When taking on this somewhat daunting task of identifying my future self it is important to identify my driving values, philosophy, dreams, and my personal calling. Self-reflection on these characteristics and preferences are key to a developing a successful picture of the future.
I have a very fulfilling feeling about what I have been able to accomplish in my life so far. I want the absolute best for myself and those close to me. I often go above and beyond to help those around me succeed and be the best version of themselves that they can possibly be.