The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” is a short story written by Ursula K. Le Guin about a utopian city where people live very happy lives. At the time of the short story the citizens of Omelas are celebrating a Summer Festival by riding and racing horses, and singing and dancing, “In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding through the streets… and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells” (Le Guin). There are no slaves and there are few that actually govern the city. The people do not have any religious leaders or priests. Le Guin writes that free love can be found in the city along with potential lovers wandering the streets.

Some might claim the YA genre has grown to be too dark for its target audience. Meghan Gurdon, a firm believer of this idea, explains why she believes this in her article, “Darkness Too Visible”. Gurdon describes the experience of a mother of three in a bookstore looking to purchase a YA novel for one of her children, when she found herself leaving the bookstore empty-handed due to the content of the teen books. While teen books decades ago contained less violent/corrupted material, times have changed along with the genre. She is concerned that these books could have an effect on these young readers’ brains as they are merely transferring from childhood to adulthood. Gurdon still has faith that YA books would sell just as well and connect with young readers today without all of the dark subject matters discussed in them these days.

In both works, “The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K Leguin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the authors show sacrifice. This essay will compare the differences and similarities in the stories, and how these sacrifices add to the fulfillment of their lives, success, and happiness.

In a dystopian society, one can face many troublesome things within the control of a government. Because of their leaders and government, many nations face dystopia. Within the dystopian society of Nazi Germany, the citizens were controlled by Hitler and the government; Hitler segregated the Jews and changed many of the German society’s viewpoints that impacted many people to agree with the choices of the government. In evaluating how Nazi Germany was a dystopian society, one can know how dystopia can influence many people’s lives through literary works.

Dark themes are on the rise in young adult literature, and parents can’t help but wonder if this is due to the abundance of these subjects in adult literature. Literary critic Meghan Cox Gurdon’s editorial “Darkness Too Visible” and author Sherman Alexie’s response “Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood” have contrasting views on this subject. However, with the superior techniques Alexie Sherman is more effective. Both authors use themes and style in their writing, but with his superior use of persuasive techniques Alexie Sherman’s article is ultimately more effective.

In 1966 Truman Capote shocked the world with a novel unlike anything ever seen before. Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood” not only entranced readers with its often dark and mysterious tone, stunning imagery and controversial elements but introduced its audience to an all new genre, a non-fiction novel. In 2001 Lois T. Stover commented on the complexity and depth found in quality young adult literature, she stated that “Good young adult literature deals with the themes and issues that mirror the concerns of society … it help readers understand the complexities and shades of grey involved in dealing with these issues." “In Cold Blood” is a superb example that there is nothing simple about quality young adult literature, themes and messages found in capotes crime/thriller novel did and still relate heavily to our growing society. “In Cold Blood” explores numerous social issues; including the detrimental effects of mental illness, the banality of evil and the importance of family however it’s the commentary Capote makes on the so called “American dream” that questions its authenticity, takes centre stage throughout the novel.

The future can be a strange and scary thing to think about, especially when its predictions are not good. Dystopian authors don’t necessarily predict the future as much as they warn against what the present could become. They warn readers by using something called satire. Satire in dystopian novels is when authors exaggerate society’s current situation so that readers learn from their actions. Authors like Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut use satire to warn against rules of society like conformity, equality, and censorship.

To be happy, one must take the happiness of others. That’s just how it works, right? In most cases, joy is brought by other’s despair. Author Ursula K. Le Guin took this into a more literal level, in her short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Le Guin tells a story about a town of fueling all of it’s happiness through one child who must suffer.

Dystopian literature has been described as fiction that shows a negative perspective without the limits of society and mankind. Utopian works ordinarily sketch a future in which innovation enhances the regular life of people and advances human

As new genres in the world of novels fade out of the public eye, new ones arise just as fast. A genre that has taken the world by storm is the dystopian trope. Many new young adult novels have this new genre incorporated into the story, often weaving in themes of sadness or conformity being overcome by rebelliousness and hope. It is one of the newest genres, yet one of the most widely varied compared to older ones. Even novels from 70 years ago, such as Ayn Rand’s Anthem share similarities with the same types of stories from only 20 years ago, like The Giver by Lois Lowry.

While not all works of young adult literature stand up to critical analysis, many of them do. Although no work of young adult literature may ever be raised to canonical status because of its less romantic setting or less sophisticated language, it is an important category of literature to which adolescents and young adults can relate as well as one from which they can grow personally and socially, gaining skills that can be used for critical thinking and analysis for the rest of their

He believes that “tomorrow isn’t what it used to be” and that “what we could really use right now are a few utopian novels”. These excerpts from the essay clearly define the author's position that he sees the latest trend in young adult fiction novels to be quite pessimistic and believes that there needs to be some kind of balance. He does this so that the readers of these works have the ability to experience the happy endings as well as the somewhat cynical endings of the seemingly endless array of futuristic dystopian worlds. Reeve continues to support his argument by throwing phrases such as “the apocalypse, we seem to be teaching young readers, is something that you have to take seriously” and “more worrying still is the absence of any counterbalance”, which propose that the authors of the young adult novels are finding themselves getting caught up in the worlds that they are creating and drifting further from the reality

“The Lottery” and “The Ones Who Walked away from Omelas” definitely falls in with the utilitarianism theory that I learned from my philosophy class. The theory is based on maximize happiness. Like in “The Lottery” the people believe that their annual ritual of sacrificing one of their people will wash away the sins in the society and that it will help prosper their crops. Tessie Hutchinson pleaded for her life as the villagers were getting ready to stone her. Of course no one listen to her because everyone was taught to believe that it was necessary and for the ones who wanted to say that it’s wrong, they couldn’t for they too believed they will be sacrificed.

A glimpse of the future can always be a reason to advocate towards the public and united as one to prevent an upfront within one’s self or civilization. In the afterword’s, one can identify foreshadowing throughout the novel 1984 that warns the people whose freedom is endangered. This incentive of foreshadowing conveyed through, “near despair about the future of man… men all over the world will lose their most human qualities”, emphasizes that the future of civilization is in danger of being abominated from their freedom becoming nonexistent. “Men all over the world will lose their most human qualities”, emphasizes these ideas that if they don’t act now there will no freedom to confide on. This in the eyes of the public is a wake up sign to

Over time many texts have been created which depict future societies and the governmental systems that may exist. Generally due to the nature of the sci-fi genre, these texts portray a utopian or dystopian world. These texts provide what we may see as extreme portrayals of certain issues or events and what role humans play in the future