Literary Analysis Essay on The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Introduction

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" short story is written by Jorge Luis Borges Ursula K. Le Guin. In 1974, the story won the Hugo Award as the best short story, and it appears in the 1975 collection of the author.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Plot

The story starts with a description of the blissful city of the Omelas by the Narrator. Children play, adults dance and bells ring as the city celebrates the summer festival. The Narrator stops describing the scene at Omelas and tries to explain the background of the joyful town and its citizens. The narrator tells that Omelas citizens' joyfulness does not make them simple-minded. However, it appears that the narrator does not know the city clearly, so he or she invites the audience to imagine and fill any details they see fit and argues that "it doesn't matter, as you like it" (Le Guin, 1973).

Back at the description of the festival, children prepare for the horse race with the crowd surrounding the racecourse as the children stand at the starting line and tend their horses ready for the competition. The blast of the trumpet indicates that the summer festival has just begun, but the narrator is not sure if the readers believe in Omelas. The narrator, therefore, discloses a critical fact about the Omelas to convince the readers. The narrator reveals that there is a child kept in a windowless room with a poor living condition, neglected, abused and malnourished (Le Guin, 1973).

The narrator states that the citizens of the Omelas are aware of the child and most have seen it but failed to help since the cities happiness depends on the sufferings of the child. Some citizens are unable to go home after seeing the child and resolve to leave the town alone and silent never to return. The narrator lacks any idea of the destination of those who walk away since it might be more unimaginable to the readers than the city itself. However, the narrator states that "they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas" (Le Guin, 1973).

The Point of View

The point of view in Le Guin (1973) short story is narrated from a third person omniscient. The narrator in the short story is aware of what happens in the city of Omelas, and he or she can see why there is a child kept in a windowless basement by the citizens. The narrator sees why it considered wrong and understands how other people can view this act and why Omelas citizens ignore the child. The narrator is also aware of the feelings and thoughts of all the other people in the story as the narrator tries to address the feelings and thoughts of the reader occasionally. The audience is addressed in a metafiction form to keep reminding the reader that the story, place and the people are all imaginary things, and the reader will be able to know that the short story is a parable. There is also an element of first-person observer point of view when the narrator uses words like "I" to tell the story.

The Major Characters

The Child

There is a small child in a windowless room talked about for almost a full page. The child is genderless, and the reason as to why it is separated from everyone and everything and left to suffer is because of some terms set by a group of unknown people or person. These terms are arranged so that the citizens of Omelas can be happy; the more the child suffers, the happier they became. The child recalls having a mother and in the sunlight and hopes it will be good meaning it knows it is good. It is locked and abandoned for justice to be served. "The terrible justice of reality" (Le Guin, 1973).

Citizens of Omelas

These are the people living in the city of Omelas and described by the narrator as happy and joyful, but the happiness is not devoid of responsibility. These citizens are aware of a lonely child and that they get their joy from its continued sufferings and they are not barbarian nor are they less complicated. The citizens are happy, and content without any luxury which appears unusual therefore the narrator invites the audience to imagine anything they see fit ( Le Guin, 1973).

The Ones Who Walk From the Omelas

These people are of all genders and ages and decide to leave the city of Omelas after seeing the shameful and awful secret of the Omelas (the child). They are unable to come to terms with the suffering of the child and therefore decide to leave the city individually and alone to a destination not known by the narrator, but it seems they know their destination.

The Narrators Audience

The narrator has a diverse audience as he or she states that "I cannot suit you all"(Le Guin, 1973). They are opposed to the people of Omelas since they cannot describe a happy man nor celebrate joy like the Omelas. The city is not credible to the audience, so the narrator has to explain more by revealing the secret of the child.

The Setting

According to the narrator's description, Omelas appears to be a Utopia village; somewhere idyllic and everything is perfect. The Omelas city is situated in a waterfront with the Eastern and Southern parts of the city facing the direction of the water. The Northern and the western sides have small field patches surrounding them, and then there are snow-capped mountains which are abundant with something unimaginable which does not seem to exist. There are also cities in the area which other people can come from to visit the Omelas. It is doubtless that Omelas is located on Earth. There is no specified date which can be placed to indicate when the story occurs. However, it can be seen that it happens towards the start of summer and the citizens as well as the city seem quite advanced since there is the use of trains with knowledge close to ours; indicating the setting of the story is perhaps about 200 Earth years old. The start of summer festival brings laughter and merry to the citizens of Omelas ( Le Guin, 1973).

Tone and Style

The tone in the opening of the story is quite bright and optimistic. The narrator speaks of a city where happiness is common; there are sweetness and merry in the air. However, Le Guin (1973) switches the tone when the secret of the basement child is revealed; it becomes ominous and dark. The child is abandoned under poor living conditions everyone in the city knows this since their happiness depends on the Childs misery.

There are two styles in Le Guins (1973) short story; the short story is mainly narrative with a bit of persuasive writing style. The story is based on a "Utopia" which obvious hard to come by, and it tells how "utopia" is always happy. It is fictional with its imperfection/perfection of the city which has a suffering child locked away alone. There is also a persuasive style to the story because there is a main action trying to find out that someone has to suffer for even the best places to flourish. There is a small child locked in a basement, malnourished, suffering, sad and rejected and it is the only for the "utopia" to be happy; this is a significant action been shown by the story.

The Theme

The theme in the story is the ethical dilemma: The citizens of the omelas face ethical dilemma when they know about the abandoned suffering child. They have to either come into terms with the existence of the suffering child or else leave their homes never to go back to forget about the child; the lone Childs welfare or the city's welfare. This is because according to the story we can see that the Omelas citizens have only two choices to make; to leave or stay knowing about the child since no one can try to help the child or interact with it. It is obvious that a common man will react in a certain way to any unjust or immoral situation (Le Guin, 1973).

There are also other themes like the theme of imagination and allegory; the reader is invited by the narrator to imagine anything as long as the city will feel real to them. By the time the narrator mentions the child, the reader is already involved in the Omelas, and by the end of the story, the reader already knows what decision to make in the real world. Omelas is an imaginary land which later becomes real to the reader making them recognize it as an allegory; a city with citizens who have the same moral questions like us and not a fairy tale place ( Le Guin, 1973).

Symbolism

The Darkness: It symbolizes the unrealized humanity's political abilities'.A happy city like Omelas cannot flourish without someone suffering. Le Guin (1973) suggests that no people or individual should serve as other people's scapegoat for them to flourish. The narrator cannot tell the destination of the ones who walk away from the Omelas as it remains "dark" to him or her with the darkness symbolizing that it is impossible to imagine anything else to a city whose happiness depends on other people suffering.

Cellar Child: The small child symbolizes the scapegoat of the citizens of the Omelas who has to suffer for them to be happy. The child shows injustices and the mistreatments represent selfishness.

Flute Player: This somehow symbolizes loneliness. Even though the citizens of Omelas live together, they might be disconnected in an away since flute player makes an attraction using beautiful music, but people seem distant towards the flute player (Le Guin,1973).

References

Le Guin, U. (1973). The ones who walk away from Omelas. New Dimensions, 3.