The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas

3 Pages 716 Words

“The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” is an interesting story, since the author Ursula K. LeGuin focuses on the way the city is developed By playing attention of the way the habitants lives are, we can find the positives and negatives aspects of the town. The way she describes the people of Omelas, by saying that “they were mature, intelligent, [and] passionate adults,” gives the impression that Omelas is a dreamy and irreal city. The place that LeGuin describes here is nowhere in particular. It can be any town in the world, which means that the story that develops can be symbolic of any town or city. The emphasis on the ideality of this city is what gives rise to the irony of the story, because happiness of Omelas’ inhabitants is based on the suffering of a child.
The way LeGuin describes the town of Omelas, puts us in a difficult place, since we are forced to accept the story as it is told to us. Even though, at the beginning of this passage, she does not seem sure of how to describe this town. She mentions, “how can I tell you about the people of Omelas?” It seems as if she is trying to find the perfect words “I wish I could describe it better” to describe how the inhabitants of Omelas are. Therefore, we are forced to accept the credibility of the story. However, one interesting thing about LeGuin’s style is that, even though she gives us numerous descriptions to make her story believable, we are still given a tool to create a setting as she says, “it would best if you imagined it”. LeGuin’s method is perfectly seen here. She uses rich images of the city to lure the reader into imagining what a perfect society will be like, “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time.” In one hand she is guiding us with vivid images, but on the other she allows us to participate as she mentions, “perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own ...