Ursula K. Le Guin is one of science fiction's most popular writers. She is also one of the genre's most respected. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is an allegorical tale about a utopian society in which Omelas' happiness is made possible by the sacrifice of one child for the sake of the group. It is a perfect society where the happiness of others depends on the suffering of one. In this allegorical tale, many symbols and images are used in an attempt to describe universal truths about life. The story is a first-person narration told from the point of view of the narrator. The readers can come to know about this when the narrator says, 'I do not know the rules and laws of their society', indicating that she is not part of the city. The city of Omelas doesn't exist in reality, it's the writer's inventory world. The readers aren't sure about how much the narrator knows about Omelas and she has projected both the idea of limited knowledge and all-knowing.
People of Omelas are seen celebrating the Festival of Summer where children are playing and adults are seen dancing. The environment is cheerful and joyous. The narrator is successful in describing the happy nature of Omelas. However, she takes away the reader's efforts to imagine a perfect society without any suffering and pain when we come to learn about the little boy on whom lies the burden of other's happiness. The town is happy because the boy is subjected to suffering or else everybody would be in pain. The narrator wails about the difficulty of creating Omelas as a true model of a utopian society and at the same time acknowledges the reader's complexity in imagining a society where everyone is merry. This is because imagining such a society would be stupid of course in today's world also we as humans have developed an understanding where we consider suffering to be more acceptable than a jovial state. Therefore, the narrator has left to its reader the explicit task of building their perception of Omelas and goes on to outline the anguish and misery of the child which seems more acceptable to the readers as it is more or less the reflection of society in which they live and so is relatable.
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The narrator has built an oxymoron in the way that she has projected a guilt-free and guilty society wherein on one side, people are aware of the child's suffering and yet they continue to turn a blind eye toward him focusing on their happiness and minding their way of life, thinking it to be perfect. They do not care about the child, for them, their happiness is the utmost priority above all. Not that they aren't aware of the condition or they are carefree but it's the way of life they choose to live like many others in this world would opt for. The others seem to carry the guilt with them which leads them to abandon Omelas and walk away to a place about which even they and the narrator aren't aware whether is it going to be better or worse than Omelas. The realization on their part of the child's suffering, his tortured state almost symbolic of slavery, and the discontent ment that he goes through makes them make such decision. The narrator doesn't despise the people of Omelas who live in a utopian society neither does she justify the decision of people who choose to live in the city. It's entirely left to the audience to contemplate and decide which way would they plump for.
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Essay on ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ Summary.
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