The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas, By Shirley Jackson

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Though oftentimes a utopia may seem like a perfect ideal world to live in with no problems, the front that they put up can often be deceiving. Usually what may be viewed as an ideal utopian society can be a dystopia in disguise. Furthermore, what happens if society's rebels choose to fight back against their dystopia and try to change things for the common good? This idea is shown throughout several short stories such as “Repent Harlequin”. Said the Tick Tock Man” by Harlan Ellison, The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson all feature societies under ideological control. Well, some citizens try to disrupt the control, others leave the society altogether, and others try to protest or question …show more content…

For example, on page 19 Ellison writes “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.” In Everett’s society, everyone is treated more or less like a machine and not like a human being. The government in this society uses ideological control by instating that being on time is a requirement and following their society's rules will lead to no one getting hurt. The government further uses the incentive that there is an electronic heart plate in their chest that is essentially meant to control them and keep them in line. Timeliness is especially important in this society and when citizens are not on time, they are punished. This ideological control of following the rules is very dehumanizing because the citizens are not welcomed with any grace or room for error, if they are late they are essentially screwed. Error is a huge part of humanity, without error, the world wouldn’t be the same. Taking away room for error is taking away failure, which is an essential human experience that brings mankind closer together. Furthermore, not only is it dehumanizing to essentially be a robot running on a schedule, but also the citizens are treated like machines. They can be controlled through …show more content…

In this dystopian society, the lottery is the yearly ritual the citizens have where they draw names, and whatever name they draw will be killed. Though this practice is old and dated, the text demonstrates how often societies will still keep tradition and not stray from what has always been done. For example, on page 10 Jackson writes, “That over in the north village, they’re talking of giving up on the lottery. Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools” Though neighboring towns and societies are trying to change the ideological control they are under by believing that the only way to live is through the lottery system, oftentimes older people in the societies choose to shrug it off. This is generally because older people are the most resistant to change. After all, they are used to the control that they've been under, the way that things naturally are. In actuality though, they are further holding themselves back from being able to break free from the traditions of ideological control that they are under. Not being able to break free of this control and question how their society is being run can be dehumanizing because it is taking the rights of citizens to be able to speak freely and question their lives and how they are living whereas, instead in this society that is under ideological control, they

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