The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas Literary Devices

“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, describes a utopian city, but not without a twist. With this piece, the author provokes the reader to question the morality of utilitarianism as both a citizen of the fictional city, and allegorically as a member of our world. Le Guin uses many literary tactics to compel the reader to be critical of her fictional society, primarily sharply contrasting imagery and metafictional writing techniques. The creation of two distinctly contrasting worlds, Omelas and the Cellar, is both facilitated and reinforced by the author’s decision to incorporate the narrator into the text as an independent and self-critical entity.
Our introduction to the Omelas begins with the Festival of Summer. Joyous crowds, shimmering …show more content…
The children of Omelas help to establish this tone: “[they are] naked in the bright air, with mud-stained feet”. Their glee and carelessness is constructed by the very indifference to nudity and dirt, with this “[The children] exercised their restive horses before the race”. The horses in Omelas are not just compliant, “they were vastly excited”. Not only are the citizens, both young and old, happy to be a part of the festivities, but “[the horse] has adopted our ceremonies as his own”. This element adds to the fictitious tone, weaning the reader away from the text’s validity. To elaborate upon this narrative, the author inserts the narrator’s perspective and uses this technique to address concerns or doubts about Omelas. The narrator is advantageous, and utilizes the plot’s farfetched points as a means of reaching out to the reader, a technique that I will elaborate on later. After the vivid and powerful portrayal of the utopian city that is the Omelas, the author shocks readers by revealing a surprising fact about the utopia’s foundation: the beauty, carefree nature and harmony of Omelas hinges upon the perpetuation of the suffering of one …show more content…
Le Guin masterfully uses this technique to address the story’s shortcomings. She ‘exposes’ the impracticality within the narrative’s claims by addressing exactly what the reader has been told to think. “Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time”. The author’s self insertion into the story as a narrator facilitates critical analysis of the text, and this is tested by confronting the reader head on: “Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all”. Le Guin purposefully addresses the fact that Omelas is imagined, and offers the reader room to individualize it so it fits their own definition of ‘paradise’. We, as readers, then become susceptive to adding own elements of realism, which in turn makes Omelas real to us. The narrator goes to great lengths to tailor the plot to fit a convincing mold, then quickly departs from it, questioning the reader head on: “Do you