“The Ones Who Walk
Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
This story was read from the anthology “The Unreal and the
Real” by Ursula K. le Guin.
Here is a link that does a very critical break down of this
story:
You can also read this story for free here: http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.pdf
This was an interesting story. It didn’t have much in the way of anything
going on, but was more of a description of the village, or city, of Omelas. This story was narrated and the narrator was
not named or identified. I would have
liked to know who was talking about the city and giving me the description.
It opened up with the beginning of the people getting ready
for a summer festival. The utopia that
everyone lived in and how everyone worked to make the city a great place to live
and be happy. It reminded me of
communism a little bit with the references to how each worked their share for
the others. Later on, there is a twist
in the story.
We learn that everyone’s happiness hinges on a child who is
locked up. He sits in his own feces, is
fed minimal food and water, and his body is covered in sores. People come and visit him and are enraged at
his treatment. Yet they justify his
treatment by telling themselves that even if he were let out of his cage he
wouldn’t know how to be happy. His
happiness is the cage, malnutrition, and sores on his body. However, every now and then after visiting
the child, people will walk home, but then just keep going. They walk out of the city of Omelas, where
they go is anyone’s guess. The forest,
the mountains, another city. They walk
out and are never heard from again.
This
story had lots of description. I could
see what was happening very vividly. I
didn’t really see a plot happening and there wasn’t any real story to follow
per se. This was more of just listening
to a narrator telling you about a utopia called Omelas. I found it to be an alright story about a
city. I would of liked to hear more
about the race that was beginning to take shape, but never resolved. That would of at least left me satisfied with
some sort of plot. Using the horse race
as a catalyst for the rest of the descriptive nature of the narration.
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